An ‘Apprentice’ producer and a TV-obsessed president: Inside the GOP’s convention scramble

After Donald Trump blew up the GOP’s convention for the second time, aides sat before a blank whiteboard and started over — with only four weeks to go.

President Donald Trump had just pulled the plug on plans for an in-person convention bash in Jacksonville, Fla., when a handful of his top political aides met in a conference room in suburban Washington, sitting in front of a blank whiteboard.

Their task seemed overwhelming: To plan out a four-day convention in four weeks — an undertaking that typically takes a year or more. It was the second time this summer that the president had blown up the GOP’s convention.

The group — which included lead convention planner and ex-White House official Tony Sayegh, deputy campaign manager Justin Clark, head of presidential operations Max Miller, and the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump — had no set budget. They had no speakers lineup and no venue. In short, they had to figure out from scratch what the whole thing should look like. Continue reading.