The boardroom door may be creaking back open — and a familiar last name could be sitting in the big chair. Amazon executives have quietly floated the idea of rebooting “The Apprentice” with Donald Trump Jr. as host, more than a decade after his father last delivered the show’s signature “You’re fired.”
The chatter, first reported by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed in part by Amazon, has the entertainment industry buzzing about what could be the streaming giant’s most attention-grabbing project yet involving the first family. But before anyone starts casting contestants, a few caveats: the show is not in active development, and Amazon hasn’t even approached the Trump family about the idea.
“Since our acquisition of MGM, we have had preliminary internal discussions about what’s next for The Apprentice as a property,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “The show is not in active development, and any reporting on details of the show or names of potential hosts would be purely speculative.”
How the Idea Took Shape
According to people familiar with the talks, Amazon MGM Studios head Mike Hopkins and other executives began kicking around the reboot idea internally early last year, right around the time President Trump was being sworn in for his second term. Amazon co-owns the rights to “The Apprentice” alongside Trump Productions, a tangle that traces back to MGM’s 2014 acquisition of a majority stake in Mark Burnett’s production companies and Amazon’s later purchase of MGM.
The original series, which aired on NBC and was produced by Trump Productions and Mark Burnett Productions, ran for 15 seasons from 2004 to 2017. Trump hosted the first 14 seasons and appeared in 186 episodes from 2004 to 2015, drawing nine Emmy nominations and spawning spinoffs including “Celebrity Apprentice” and “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.” Arnold Schwarzenegger took over for the 15th and final season in 2017.
Even out of production, the property remains lucrative. Amazon has been streaming reruns of the original, and Trump’s 2024 financial disclosures show the show generated between $100,000 and $1,000,000 in royalties that year alone.
Don Jr. Caught by Surprise
If the host job is really being dangled, someone forgot to tell the would-be host. A person close to Donald Trump Jr. told The Hollywood Reporter that he wasn’t aware he was being considered and only learned about it from reading the report. An insider also told Variety there have not been “any discussions with anyone outside the company” about producing the reboot.
Trump Jr. is no stranger to the franchise. He, his sister Ivanka Trump and his brother Eric Trump served as advisors to their father across multiple seasons. In 2024, Trump revealed to Variety’s Ramin Setoodeh — for his book “Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass” — that Ivanka was actually his first pick to take over the show.
“I said, ‘The best person to hire would be Ivanka Trump,'” Trump recalled. “I didn’t press it. But I felt Ivanka would have been by far the best person you could hire.”
A Father’s Lukewarm Endorsement
At an Oval Office executive order signing event Thursday, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked President Trump about the reports. His response was less than effusive but ultimately positive: “Well, I’ve been hearing it. So we’ll see what happens. He’s good. He’s a good guy. He’s probably good. He’s got a little charisma going.”
It’s a busy stretch for Trump Jr., 48, who announced his engagement to socialite and model Bettina Anderson in December 2025 at a White House holiday party. Anderson, the daughter of banker Harry Loy Anderson Jr. and Inger Anderson, was first linked to Trump Jr. in August 2024, with the couple making their first public appearance together at inauguration events in January 2025.
Trump Jr. was previously married to Vanessa Trump, with whom he shares five children: Kai, 18; Donald III, 17; Tristan, 14; Spencer, 13; and Chloe, 11. The two divorced in 2018. Vanessa is now dating golf icon Tiger Woods, a friend of the president. Trump Jr. also dated former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle from 2018 to 2024; the two were engaged in 2020 before separating.
Amazon’s MAGA-Friendly Pivot
The “Apprentice” chatter lands against the backdrop of Amazon’s increasingly cozy relationship with the Trump orbit. The nearly $3 trillion company and founder Jeff Bezos have grown notably MAGA-friendly since Trump’s return to the White House. Bezos attended the inauguration, and Amazon has helped sponsor a number of Trump events, including the inauguration itself and the proposed White House ballroom.
Then there’s “Melania.” Amazon paid $40 million for the Brett Ratner-directed documentary about the first lady and spent another $35 million on its global marketing campaign — a combined estimated $75 million outlay that topped the second-highest bidder, Disney, by $26 million. The film, which opened on January 30, 2026, to $7.2 million domestically, notched the best opening for a nonmusic documentary in more than a decade. Critics, however, were not kind, and “Melania” has grossed $16.7 million to date.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel called the “Melania” deal a “brazen corporate bribe,” and online critics piled on after the “Apprentice” reports surfaced. Whether the reboot ever moves past those “preliminary internal discussions” remains to be seen — but for now, the boardroom buzzer is on hold.