BATMAN
12-16-2005, 09:45 AM
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During the entire “Apprentice 4” finale, one thing was clear: Donald Trump was going to hire both Randal and Rebecca as his newest employees.
“Rebecca, you’re outstanding. Randal, you’re hired,” Trump said.
The band struck up the “Apprentice” theme song and Randal leapt up, hugging his friends in the cast. How could this be? What about Rebecca? Then Trump called for Randal to return to the table repeatedly. Trump, ever the showman, was just trying to squeeze out a little bit more melodrama before the double-hiring.
At least, that’s the way it appeared.
“If you were me, would you hire Rebecca also?” he asked Randal, and we all knew what was coming next. After getting the nod from Randal, Donald Trump was going to make “Apprentice” history and hire Rebecca too.
Selfish when he could have been selfless
But then Randal, who’s perhaps played the game with more integrity than anyone else in four seasons of “The Apprentice,” and who earned the respect of basically every other candidate in the suite this season, surprised everyone.
“Mr. Trump, I firmly believe that this is ‘The Apprentice,’ that there is one and only one apprentice, and if you’re going to hire someone tonight, it should be one,” Randal said. “It’s not ‘The Apprenti,’ it’s ‘The Apprentice.’”
For some reason, this impossibly lame and aggressively selfish argument convinced Trump, who kind of shrugged and said, “Okay, I’m going to leave it at that then. I think could have been convinced, but you feel that’s the way it should be, I’m going to leave it that way.”
That audience booed, feeling as betrayed as Rebecca must have, and as Randal jogged to the end of the stage to wave at the crowd, he was facing a group that had lost some of their respect for him; their clapping and cheering was subdued, and boos were still audible.
Rebecca just shook Trump’s hand and said, “That’s unfortunate.”
During the entire “Apprentice 4” finale, one thing was clear: Donald Trump was going to hire both Randal and Rebecca as his newest employees.
“Rebecca, you’re outstanding. Randal, you’re hired,” Trump said.
The band struck up the “Apprentice” theme song and Randal leapt up, hugging his friends in the cast. How could this be? What about Rebecca? Then Trump called for Randal to return to the table repeatedly. Trump, ever the showman, was just trying to squeeze out a little bit more melodrama before the double-hiring.
At least, that’s the way it appeared.
“If you were me, would you hire Rebecca also?” he asked Randal, and we all knew what was coming next. After getting the nod from Randal, Donald Trump was going to make “Apprentice” history and hire Rebecca too.
Selfish when he could have been selfless
But then Randal, who’s perhaps played the game with more integrity than anyone else in four seasons of “The Apprentice,” and who earned the respect of basically every other candidate in the suite this season, surprised everyone.
“Mr. Trump, I firmly believe that this is ‘The Apprentice,’ that there is one and only one apprentice, and if you’re going to hire someone tonight, it should be one,” Randal said. “It’s not ‘The Apprenti,’ it’s ‘The Apprentice.’”
For some reason, this impossibly lame and aggressively selfish argument convinced Trump, who kind of shrugged and said, “Okay, I’m going to leave it at that then. I think could have been convinced, but you feel that’s the way it should be, I’m going to leave it that way.”
That audience booed, feeling as betrayed as Rebecca must have, and as Randal jogged to the end of the stage to wave at the crowd, he was facing a group that had lost some of their respect for him; their clapping and cheering was subdued, and boos were still audible.
Rebecca just shook Trump’s hand and said, “That’s unfortunate.”