As Donald Trump picks his cabinet and fills other top official positions, it looks more and more like he is casting a dramatic Political Apprentice, that is sure to have plenty of rivalry, excitement, and uncertainty, as his choices battle it out for having the most power.  Adding to the drama,members of Congress, other politicians, the media, and Trump supporters and opponents fight it over his choices and policies.  At least that's what internationally known author Gini Graham Scott thinks in her latest article on Huffington Post: "Is Donald Trump Casting the 'Political Apprentice'?" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/is-donald-trump-casting-the-political-apprentice_us_583c8ae4e4b04e28cf5b8a25

            As Scott writes after observing the selection process: "It is like Trump has been making choices based on who would create the most drama to keep the show continually interesting, and if we end up with World War III, well, that will be even more exciting.  Because in drama, you want the stakes as high as possible to keep the audience even more engaged.  And what better emotions to get even more audience involvement than anger and fear?"

           Scott offers several examples of Trump's recent appointments.  Retired LT. General Mike Flynn, selected as National Security Adviser, was the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency for 2 years, but he was fired in 2014 because of concerns about his disruptive management style, and he has expressed an eagerness to go to war against enemies.  Another selection is billionaire Republican Activist Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education, who has no education degree or teaching experience, never worked in public education, and never attended public school or a state university.   

              As further examples, Scott notes that Trump has selected Steve Bannon, best known for running Breitbart and advocating the alt-right platform, based on the white nationalist agenda, for Chief Strategist.   And for Attorney General. he tapped Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who is well known as a hardliner against immigration, a military hawk who once voted against an amendment banning cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of prisoners; a skeptic of climate change; and he has been accused of being a racist. 

              In Scott's view, these are great choices for casting an exciting season of a new show called Political Apprentice, where part of the excitement is wondering what nutty outrageous thing each person will do.  Then, too, everyone will be eagerly wanting to know who will be ceremoniously fired in the board room – now the Oval Office -- each week.  She even suggests that starting World War III might be a fitting capper for the season, since everyone will be in suspense wondering what can come next, after Trump punches the nuclear codes button instead of sending out a late night tweet.  Moreover, the ensuing nuclear explosion might have the same kind of action-adventure box office appeal, like one of the growing number of apocalypse movies and TV shows, in which the U.S. or world is destroyed and the chosen few get to rebuild society. 

            As further evidence of this dramatic casting for the political world that has become like a reality, she points to the recent plot twists, where Trump has gone back on a series of promises that were fed to his largely white lower-income Rust Belt audience, such as Trump backing away from a major selling point of his presidency which was a promise to launch an investigation to prosecute Hillary Clinton, leading to the chants of "Lock Her Up!"  Soon after winning Trump said the prosecution would be too divisive, but now that Clinton's campaign is supporting Jill Stein's vote recount efforts, he is threating prosecution again, as well as now claiming he lost the popular vote due to voter fraud because the voting was rigged, though he won the election and has no evidence to show any fraud. 

          Scott also looks at other promises that Trump is unlikely to carry out, such as his promise to deport 11 million illegal immigrants and build a wall that Mexico would pay for and his promise to bring jobs back to coal country and other backwater areas of the country.  But none of those promises may actually happen, and when low-income or unemployed workers find they are losing their social security, health benefits, and access to public education, given some recently proposed policies, they may soon discover they have fallen for Trump's latest scam.

            Meanwhile, the policies Trump is advocating will make the rich very happy, as well as line his own businesses, now that he has declared that Presidents can't have conflicts of interest and don't have to set up blind trusts.  Trump may have criticized Clinton for her contacts with high level officials who contributed to the Clinton Foundation while she was Secretary of State, but he seems to think its fine for him to make such contacts and build his bottom line as a result. So if he makes business deals with company owners in Argentina with some help from the government, persuades foreign dignitaries to stay in his hotel in Washington, or gets paid millions by the U.S. government for hosting Secret Service agents in his Trump Tower or for him flying somewhere in his plane, that's fine.

            Scott also points out how Trump will be using the perks of the office to get revenge on those he thinks done him wrong, since he once told Richard Branson, head of Virgin Airways, that he was determined to get payback on those who harmed him – which is probably about half of the country who voted against him.  And, of course, any revenge will make for exciting drama in the weekly Political Apprentice series that will continue running for four years, unless those with some political power decide, like a network, to cancel it, say by firing – uh, impeaching -- the President or deciding he is unfit for office and unable to perform his official duties. 

         Scott concludes by suggesting that the country is in for an exciting tumultuous ride as each week of Political Apprentice unfolds with a new twist and turn in the plot.  "What will happen next?" she asks, proposing that an enthralled and often wary country will awaits the outcome as it tunes in for the latest news on this ongoing show.

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            Gini Graham Scott, PhD, writes frequently about social trends and everyday life. She is the author of over 50 books with major publishers and has published over 40 books through her company Changemakers Publishing and Writing. She writes books and proposals for clients and has written and produced over 50 short videos through Changemakers Productions and is a partner in a service that connects writers to publishers, agents, and the film industry.  Her latest books include: Turn Your Dreams Into Reality, The New Middle Ages, Scammed, and Lies and Liars: How and Why Sociopaths Lie and How to Detect and Deal With Them.