Why won't Donald Trump hire "Donald Trump"?

Daniel Gross at Slate has an interesting take:

In The Apprentice, Donald Trump set out to find his doppelgänger, the next aggressive, combed-over, self-important tycoon. But from a field populated with prickly, quirky, and assertive mogul-wannabes, Trump has narrowed his choices to a pair of mild-mannered guys: Kwame Jackson and Bill Rancic....

To a large degree, The Apprentice mimicked Trump's business. Most of the tasks the apprentice-wannabes tackled involved selling goods and services—lemonade, art work, a rental apartment, celebrity auction items, a party room—to gullible members of the public eager for a brush with boldface names at inflated prices. It is telling that no task involved, say, reading a balance sheet or a loan-amortization schedule—skills that are essential for real-estate development but in which Trump's record is less than stellar.

But over the last several weeks, as the crowd was winnowed from eight to the final two, Trump systematically weeded out the contestants who shared his style. Virtually all of the final eight worked in sales or marketing—except Kwame. But Trump found each of them wanting....

Of course, both Kwame and Bill seem like good, capable guys. They didn't ruffle feathers, play mind games with fellow contestants, or lie. They didn't incite fear, desire, or envy, which is one of the reasons they survived week after week. They both seemed grounded and capable of having a conversation about someone other than themselves. They're the kinds of guys The Donald would probably like his daughter Ivanka to date. And the kinds of guys who would make fine executive vice presidents and middle managers at a Fortune 500 company. The show that was supposed to mint New York's next brash entrepreneur has instead given us the Organization Man, 2004.

Don't trump Trump? Why cannibalize the Flagship Brand? Maybe it takes a BS-er to spot a BS-er. Stay tuned.