You're Hired! Who is the British Apprentice producer Trump is making UK special envoy?
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President-elect Donald Trump is wasting no time in appointing his new team ahead of his inauguration in January 2025, with an Emmy Award-winning British reality TV producer named as the US Special Envoy to the UK. Mark Burnett, an Essex-born ex-paratrooper, has been tapped for the role, which involves negotiating on urgent international issues. Special envoys do not require Senate approval, unlike ambassadors.
![[Mark Burnett: Hollywood TV giant who was ‘formed’ in the British Army]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2024/12/22/11/43cda7e7b05687bdf7032e46d440b9a3Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM0OTQ5NjA5-2.38907886.jpg?crop=8:5,smart&quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
"With a distinguished career in television production and business, Mark brings a unique blend of diplomatic acumen and international recognition to this important role," Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social. Burnett, 64, may not have any foreign policy experience, but he did make Trump a household name on The Apprentice as the businessman host that contestants competed to work for.
![[Trump picks Apprentice producer to be special envoy to UK]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2024/12/21/21/a31f52f0e5455439ddfae76cb1546c14Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM0OTAxNDQ5-2.78418105.jpg?crop=8:5,smart&quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
Raised in Dagenham, Burnett served in the parachute regiment in the British Army for four years. The experience serving in the Falklands and Northern Ireland was “horrific, but on the other hand – in a sick way – exciting,” he told he New York Times. Fellow soldiers nicknamed him the Male Model, per the New Yorker, for his reluctance to “get any dirt under his fingernails”.
![[Mandelson must make his voice ‘the most important’ as ambassador to US – Darroch]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2024/12/22/12/5caf736334fe81eeb1047c720158eb21Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM0OTU1NjM0-2.75222990.jpg?crop=8:5,smart&quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
Burnett emigrated to the US at the age of 22 and became a nanny in Beverly Hills for a wealthy family. Along with The Apprentice, Burnett was producer for Survivor, Martha Stewart, and Shark Tank. He has won 13 Emmy Awards and was president of MGM Television from 2015 to 2022.
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