Former President and reality TV star Donald Trump reportedly said the n-word while on set of his hit reality shot The Apprentice around 20 years ago, a former producer claims.
Rumors that the real estate tycoon used racial slurs on set of his popular TV show have lingered for years, first emerging during his initial candidacy in 2016.
Many had hoped the Mark Burnett, a reality TV pioneer who collaborated with Trump for the show, would release the alleged footage. He never did, however, and many pointed to that decision as a crucial moment in the 2016 general election.
Now, Bill Pruitt, who was also a producer on the 2000s show, told Slate that these tapes exist but he was prevented from speaking about them by a non-disclosure agreement he signed to take part in the show.
It comes as another scandal for the presumptive Republican candidate who already has a lot on his plate, as a jury in Manhattan is currently deliberating his fate as he faces 34 counts of fraud over alleged hush money payments to pornstar Stormy Daniels.
“Would America buy a n— winning?” Trump is alleged to have asked his team in the final rounds of the reality show’s opening season. With multiple Black candidates still remaining in the final round, the businessman was apparently worried about the optics of allowing a minority to win.
In his interview with Slate, Pruitt notes that others in the room reacted with embarrassment to Trump’s words.
Former President Trump has denied that he said the racial slur on set. In 2018, he said on Twitter that Burnett had called him to tell him that the tapes did not exist.
“I don’t have that word in my vocabulary and never have,” he wrote.
The Republican has long been criticized for using rhetoric deemed racist and anti-semitic by his opponents. He was recently slammed by President Joe Biden, his opponent in the 2024 general election, for a campaign add that featured the phrase “unified reich” – which many have associated with Nazi Germany and the reign of Adolf Hitler.
Trump has been under fire from multiple fronts in recent months. In addition to the hush money payment charges in New York, he is also accused of playing a role in the deadly capital riot on Jan, 6, 2021, he has been implicated in a scheme to overturn Biden’s victory of Georgia in the last election – being alleged to have pressured officials to “find” votes for him, and for storing classified documents obtained while he was president at his private residence in Florida.
