{
  "id": 4760875,
  "title": "Trump Staging Apprentice-style Competition at SBA With Nicki Minaj as Judge",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/01/trump-staging-apprentice-style-competition-at-sba-with-nicki-minaj-as",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-09-01T01:16:07.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Consequence",
    "slug": "consequence",
    "url": "https://consequence.net/2026/08/trump-apprentice-style-competition-with-nicki-minaj/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Trump administration is preparing a competition reminiscent of The Apprentice at the Small Business Administration (SBA) to celebrate the United States' 250th anniversary. The competition will award a $1 million prize pool and will feature a panel of judges, including Nicki Minaj, Grant Cardone, Joe Gebbia, and Dean Cain. The five finalists—defense technology company Compotech, metalworking machinery manufacturer Winton Machine, plastic mold manufacturing company Plas-Tech Tooling, pressure vessel manufacturer Red River, and machinery manufacturing firm VetPowered—will present their business ideas to the judges on September 18th in Washington, D.C. The winner will receive $400,000, while the other finalists will take home $250,000, $150,000, $125,000, and $75,000 respectively. Minaj has previously expressed her support for the Trump administration, once calling herself the president's \"number one fan.\"",
  "summary": "The rapper has cozied up to the president in the past. Trump Staging Apprentice-style Competition at SBA With Nicki Minaj as Judge Travis Bland",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}