BIG DIFFERENCE

Conway: Trump Will EP ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ in ‘Spare Time’

Top adviser compares TV credit to Obama’s golf outings.

According to top Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, it is “doubtful” that the incoming president will take a paycheck for his executive producer credit on the upcoming 15th season of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice. On Thursday afternoon, Variety reported the president-elect plans to remain a top producer of the reality-TV show he previously hosted before running for president. While NBC cut ties with him following his infamous comment about “rapist” Mexican immigrants, Trump still retains ties to the show via its production company MGM and the show’s creator Mark Burnett, a friend of the president-elect. Appearing Friday on CNN’s New Day, Conway dismissed conflict-of-interest concerns over Trump’s financial stake in a TV series while serving as president, noting that he is meeting with ethics experts on how best to proceed. “He’s a very transparent guy. Everyone can see what he’s doing,” she claimed. “And the fact is that he’s conferring with all types of experts to tell him what he’s allowed to do and not to do as the president of the United States, and if this is one of the approved activities, perhaps he’ll consider staying on.” And when asked whether a television show would serve as a distraction from Trump’s presidential duties, Conway suggested Trump’s production role would be more of a hobby: “OK, but were we so concerned about the hours and hours and hours spent on the golf course of the current president? I mean, presidents have a right to do things in their spare time or their leisure time, I mean nobody objects to that.”