Trump Allegedly Used N-Word to Call a Black Contestant Per The Former ‘Apprentice’ Producer

In an explosive essay published in Slate, Bill Pruitt, a former producer for The Apprentice, has alleged that former President Donald Trump used the N-word during the show's filming, an incident purportedly caught on camera. Trump used the racial slur to describe Kwame Jackson, a Black finalist on the first season of The Apprentice, which aired in 2004. Pruitt, who was one of four producers involved in the show’s first two seasons, wrote that he signed a nondisclosure agreement carrying a potential fine of $5 million, which he says expired this year.

Both black voters and women are demographics that Trump has actively targeted this year, given the anticipated tightness of the 2024 election. Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former Apprentice contestant and White House aide made a similar claim in 2018 while promoting her book. She asserted that she had listened to a recording in which Trump used the racist term per the reports of CNN. However, CNN has not independently verified the existence of such a recording. Trump tweeted, "I don’t have that word in my vocabulary, and never have," as he responded to the allegations. 

Pruitt detailed that Trump used the word while on camera, discussing Jackson's performance and his interactions with Manigault Newman, alongside showrunner Jay Bienstock, Trump employee Carolyn Kepcher, and other producers, including Pruitt. Pruitt wrote, "Afterward, we film the final meeting in the boardroom, where Jackson and Rancic are scrutinized by Trump, who, we already know, favors Rancic. Then we wrap production, pack up, and head home. There is no discussion about what Trump said in the boardroom, about how the damning evidence was caught on tape. Nothing happens." 

Trump's campaign refuted the claims and stated, "This is a completely fabricated and bullshit story that was already peddled in 2016. Nobody took it seriously then, and they won’t now, because it’s fake news. Now that Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats are losing the election, they are bringing up old fake stories from the past because they are desperate." According to Pruitt, Trump once asked a woman to leave an elevator she was about to film him on, commenting that she was "too heavy." Additionally, Pruitt wrote that Trump compared another camera operator's appearance to that of his daughter Ivanka Trump. 

"There’s a beautiful woman behind that camera. That’s all I want to look at," according to Pruitt Trump said back then. Pruitt continued by revealing, "In the show, he appeared to demonstrate impeccable business instincts and unparalleled wealth, even though his businesses had barely survived multiple bankruptcies and faced yet another when he was cast." The former producer of The Apprentice continued, "By carefully misleading viewers about Trump – his wealth, his stature, his character, and his intent – the competition reality show set about an American fraud that would balloon beyond its creators’ wildest imaginations."