We New Yorkers have long since become accustomed to seeing the name TRUMP all around us, because the man emblazons it on everything he touches, and typically in 10-foot tall gold letters. It is the Trump Brand, and he attaches an inordinate value to it as evidenced by this remarkable deposition he was once forced to give. But, for New Yorkers, the sight of a giant airplane with TRUMP plastered on the side only makes us think of his failed plunge into the airline business back in 1988. However, the grounding of the short-lived Trump Shuttle would be small potatoes compared to the beating he would later take in Atlantic City. In the span of little over a decade, Donald J. Trump would go from being the poster boy for a decade marked by greed and excess, to being a bankrupt tabloid curiosity. By the early 2000s, Trump had fallen so low that he actually lent his name to a scam get-rich-quick scheme called Trump University.

But redemption was soon at hand in the form of a crass reality television game show that turned out to be the perfect vehicle for Trump's comeback. Not so much in the monetary sense, although I suspect the money did come in handy for the perpetually cash-starved Trump. No, the real value of his long tenure on The Apprentice came from the priceless exposure it provided him with. Every week Donald Trump had an hour of prime-time television that he shrewdly used to promote himself ahead of the inevitable presidential run. And not only did he introduce himself to the American public, Trump also worked his family members into the mix. The happy result for Trump is that millions of potential voters already feel that they know, and like, Donald J. Trump. He was a celebrity before he became a politician, and it would be impossible to overstate how valuable that is to his presidential prospects.