[Senator Clay Davis]

Please have a boardroom like the Apprentice where he fires potential VP candidates across the 4 nights...

This is the part of politics he would naturally enjoy, and he wants to control it 100 percent,” said a high-level Trump campaign source. “This is a massive television production and he is a television star.”

Indeed, Trump is viewing the convention as a showcase for the brand he built in entertainment over three decades and then melded with a political persona developed over the last year. It’s an opportunity to fill a vacuum created by longtime Republican standard-bearers, from Mitt Romney and John McCain to the Bush family who are opting not to attend, and to elevate a new coalition of conservatives and present a party refashioned, at least for the moment, in his own image.

And Trump plans to create news events too, not just line up speeches by up-and-coming members of the GOP. He’s toying with unveiling a running mate at the convention rather than before. He’s even considering whether to announce his would-be Cabinet.

“Announcing the vice presidential nominee before the convention is like announcing winner of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ before the final show is on the air,” one Trump campaign source said. “This is one of the only opportunities to create tension and drama in the whole show. You better believe Mr. Trump understands that and is looking to maximize that.”

Whereas the vice presidential nominee has generally spoken on the third night of the convention and the presidential candidate has taken the stage on the fourth and final night, Trump is considering a scenario that puts him on stage, delivering remarks on all four nights, reaching millions of potential voters, and driving ratings, according to one source.

“We’re past an era of thinking about this through the lens of C-SPAN and looking at this more like the networks would broadcast or cover an Olympics or reality TV programming,” said Kevin Madden, a GOP media consultant who worked for Mitt Romney in 2012 and is not affiliated with Trump’s campaign.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/0...#ixzz492BC7waI