Why Arnold Schwarzenegger Blamed Donald Trump for 'The New Celebrity Apprentice' Getting Scrapped

The Apprentice became a name after then-real-estate developer Donald Trump hosted the series from 2008 to 2015. However, the Republican nominee pivoted to a political career and announced his election bid in 2016. Since he ditched the NBC show, the makers took Arnold Schwarzenneger on board for the reboot. But the show got canceled a year later and the Terminator star blamed Trump for it. 

The New Celebrity Apprentice, starring Schwarzenneger, premiered in 2017, but unfortunately, it was scrapped after just one season. The former California governor stepped down as a host, citing, "With Trump being involved in the show people have bad taste and don't want to participate as a spectator or as a sponsor or in any other way support the show. It's a very divisive period now and I think this show got caught up in all that division," per Empire Magazine. 

It's worth noting that the former president made some controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants on the show, prompting NBC to cut ties with him. The Apprentice, which wrapped up its 15th season in 2017, had fewer than five million viewers per episode, making it the most poorly rated edition of the show among its viewers who were mostly youths, as per The Guardian. 

But, Trump fired back at Schwarzenneger in a post on X, formerly Twitter, "Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to [a] great show." In response, the Commando actor clapped back in his social media post, saying, "There's nothing more important than the people's work." After that, Schwarzenneger added, "I wish you the best of luck and I hope you'll work for ALL of the American people as aggressively as you worked for your ratings." 

Apparently, the Republican nominee wasn't in favor of Schwarzenneger as a host still being the executive producer of the show. Instead, he proposed the name of his former First Daughter Ivanka Trump as his replacement and wanted the show to become a family legacy. However, NBC had other ideas, as revealed in the new book Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass.

Author and editor-in-chief of Variety Ramin Setoodeh quoted Trump in the book, "I said, 'The best person to hire would be Ivanka Trump. I didn't press it. But I felt Ivanka would have been by far the best person you could hire." Additionally, Trump pitched Ivanka to lead The Apprentice brand, along with her siblings Don Jr. and Eric Trump as boardroom advisers. His kids were even familiar with the show's format because they would frequently appear on set. 

"It was going to be the three of us," said Eric in an excerpt. "There were talks for a little while about it." But NBC dismissed the idea. "NBC didn't like it, because it became like a family thing," Trump claimed, as per the book. "But I said, 'There's nobody you're going to hire that will come even close to Ivanka.' They said, 'Huh…' And then they came back with Arnold Schwarzenegger."