• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, June 17, 2015

Donald Trump will try and run for president.Should he be running away from his appearances on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” and Fox’s “Fox and Friends”?

Networks will make their decisions for him: They don’t want to get involved in mixing politics with TV business -- especially considering any “equal time” considerations other candidates might demand. There are Federal rules about this issue.

It’s always good to have a platform and stay visible. Look at what it has done for Sarah Palin on TLC’s “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” as well as appearances on Fox News. (The votes are still coming in.) Mike Huckabee also had a Fox News show as well, stopping his weekend program in January to mull presidential aspirations.

It's getting harder to find better ways to maintain/advertise one's presidential aspirations. If a U.S. candidate tried to do this in the 1960s, it would be a different story. But now broadcast TV shows don’t carry nearly the same audience punch.

For many, Trump’s entry as a Republican presidential candidate may just be an entertaining diversion -- especially looking at his interesting, seemingly off-the-cuff remarks.

The last time around, in 2011, Trump was also toying with the idea of running for president, all of which got NBC mulling the idea of possibly limiting/eliminating Trump’s appearances on “Celebrity Apprentice.”

For his latest effort, NBC said it is going to re-evaluate his appearance -- which strongly suggest it’ll figure out a way to limit or remove him. Fox has already said it will discontinue Trump’s weekly appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

“Fox & Friends” probably won’t be affected when it comes to viewership, given his limited appearances. But for “Celebrity Apprentice” -- long a solid, but not stellar, NBC reality show -- viewership could be hurt.

That said, “Apprentice” usually comes on the air mid-season -- which would be sometime in 2016, January or March. Trump may not even be a candidate by then. But he’ll get some extra spin anyway to his profile -- and someone will be fired.