‘The Apprentice’ producer: Donald Trump called Kwame Jackson the n-word

Yesterday, Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, all to do with paying hush money to Stormy Daniels and colluding with David Pecker to shut down speculation about his affairs. It was always going to be a terrible day for Donald Trump, but hilariously, it was already pretty awful for him before the jury came back. Hours earlier, Slate published a first-person account from Bill Pruitt, who was a producer on The Apprentice for the first two seasons. Pruitt signed a strict NDA with a $5 million fine attached if he ever spoke about what he witnessed from Trump. The NDA just expired, and Pruitt told a lengthy story about how, during the first season, Trump used the n-word on-camera. He said it about one of the finalists that season, Kwame Jackson, and he used the word to suggest that America didn’t want to see a Black man win the game show.

We lay out the virtues and deficiencies of each finalist to Trump in a fair and balanced way, but sensing the moment at hand, Kepcher sort of comes out of herself. She expresses how she observed [Kwame] Jackson at the casino overcoming more obstacles than [Bill] Rancic, particularly with the way he managed the troublesome Omarosa. Jackson, Kepcher maintains, handled the calamity with grace.

“I think Kwame would be a great addition to the organization,” Kepcher says to Trump, who winces while his head bobs around in reaction to what he is hearing and clearly resisting.

“Why didn’t he just fire her?” Trump asks, referring to Omarosa. It’s a reasonable question. Given that this the first time we’ve ever been in this situation, none of this is something we expected.

“That’s not his job,” Bienstock says to Trump. “That’s yours.” Trump’s head continues to bob.

“I don’t think he knew he had the ability to do that,” Kepcher says. Trump winces again.

“Yeah,” he says to no one in particular, “but, I mean, would America buy a n— winning?”

Kepcher’s pale skin goes bright red. I turn my gaze toward Trump. He continues to wince. He is serious, and he is adamant about not hiring Jackson.

Bienstock does a half cough, half laugh, and swiftly changes the topic or throws to Ross for his assessment. What happens next I don’t entirely recall. I am still processing what I have just heard. We all are. Only Bienstock knows well enough to keep the train moving. None of us thinks to walk out the door and never return. I still wish I had. (Bienstock and Kepcher didn’t respond to requests for comment.)

[From Slate]

Yes, of course he said it. Of course he’s said that word in many other circumstances too, and he’s said the word a million different times over the years. Of course NBC has all of those tapes of Trump saying the word on camera. They also have tapes of him saying horribly misogynistic crap and sh-t about eugenics and antisemitic sh-t too. We’ve known that all along, that a lot of people have spent a lot of time, money and effort to cover up Trump’s most despicable statements and activities. And even with all of those cover-ups, it still comes spilling out all the time. I get that this guy had an NDA and it’s better late than never, but Jesus, news at seven, Trump is a racist piece of sh-t.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

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31 Responses to “‘The Apprentice’ producer: Donald Trump called Kwame Jackson the n-word”

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  1. Susan Collins says:
    May 31, 2024 at 9:31 am

    Yes he is a racist. He has to pay people of color to come to his rallies and pretend they like him ( shame on them). If he is elected, like hitler, he will make sure to exclude any people of color because he wants a white world only. He wants to be a dictator so get out there and vote so we can be rid of this human scum.

    • Mimi says:
      May 31, 2024 at 9:57 am

      And this will actually get him MORE votes, not less. People have been hiding who they are and he emboldens them to be their racist selves. He cannot be allowed to win.

      • moi says:
        June 3, 2024 at 2:58 pm

        exactly. the MAJORITY of americans are racist & they see him as their savior. he is saying it just like the rest of americans but y’all arent ready to have that conversation…….

  2. sevenblue says:
    May 31, 2024 at 9:32 am

    Best selling country artist is right now Morgan Wallen, whose fans and sales blew up after getting caught in the video saying n-word. People who support Trump not only don’t care, but would go for him harder for using racial slurs like they did for that country artist.

    • lucy2 says:
      May 31, 2024 at 9:44 am

      Sadly I have to agree, this is just further confirmation of how disgusting he is, but it isn’t going to change anyone’s mind.

    • paintybox says:
      May 31, 2024 at 12:52 pm

      I agree, many Trump supporters know all the dog whistles well – he’s promising that they will be able to be openly white supremacist and act on that without repercussions if he’s elected.

    • SIde Eye says:
      May 31, 2024 at 9:59 pm

      You nailed it!! They don’t like him in spite of it. They love him BECAUSE OF IT. Birds of a same feather…

  3. Blithe says:
    May 31, 2024 at 9:34 am

    I’m Shocked! Shocked, I tell you! Shocked!

    • Betsy says:
      May 31, 2024 at 11:05 am

      I’m honestly shocked he managed to make it through the last decade without using that word publicly. You know he’s a habitual user of that word and that with his dementia becoming more severe, that filter isn’t going to stay on forever.

      There. My bar for convicted felon Trump is so subterranean that him not openly using the n word shocks me.

  4. KBeth says:
    May 31, 2024 at 9:38 am

    Of course he said it, he’s a racist piece of garbage.

  5. Scorpio says:
    May 31, 2024 at 9:48 am

    I mean, the Blacks For Trump, slogan really said the unsaid out loud.

  6. Brassy Rebel says:
    May 31, 2024 at 9:51 am

    This story goes all the way back to 2016 when there was talk of him saying this during a taping of The Apprentice. Briefly, there was a hue and cry for the tape. Of course, that died down when the next outrage occurred. One reason it’s so difficult to hold this racist monster accountable for anything is because the outrages happen so fast and furious it’s impossible to focus on just one horrible thing.

    • Kitten says:
      May 31, 2024 at 10:04 am

      Thanks for confirming because my first thought was “Isn’t this an old story?”

      But yes literally NO ONE is surprised by this.

  7. Flamingo says:
    May 31, 2024 at 9:51 am

    While I think he is a buffoon, and it was a semi docu -mockumentary of sorts. Tom Arnold tried so hard to find the video of Trump using the N word on the Apprentice.

    The problem is the creator, Mark Burnett is a super right wing Christian conservative. And will never ever let the tapes out.

    The other problem is people that stand with Donald Trump think the same thing as him. So they endorse him calling black people the N word.

    I just hope someone at NBC goes rogue and gives us an October surprise.

    • Dara says:
      May 31, 2024 at 10:16 am

      I save not a small amount of ire for Mark Burnett. If he hadn’t given the orange buffoon a career lifeline, and protected him beyond all reason, I very much doubt we would have had President Trump.

      • Brassy Rebel says:
        May 31, 2024 at 11:55 am

        A large part of Trump’s appeal to older, less educated voters is this “reality” series. They took it all very seriously and at face value. You still hear people today saying they support him because he’s such a a great business man, all evidence to the contrary. Of course, even if he was a great businessman and made oodles of money legitimately, that in no way, by itself, would qualify him for the presidency. But there are so many people in this country who equate “businessman” with super smart and ultra competent. Again, all evidence to the contrary. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

  8. ML says:
    May 31, 2024 at 9:52 am

    Of course he said it…

    More interesting to me though is that this guy’s strict NDA just expired and now Bill Pruitt can speak out. We know that NDAs are a tool Trump uses often: who else’s NDA has expired and can they please speak out now.

  9. Jais says:
    May 31, 2024 at 9:53 am

    And this is why his base likes him. They don’t care what crimes he commits. He makes it okay for them to be openly racist too.

  10. Lau says:
    May 31, 2024 at 9:57 am

    I hope more NDAs expire soon and I also hope that him and his team of idiots are realising that there are a bunch of NDAs expiring soon.

    • Ciotog says:
      May 31, 2024 at 3:00 pm

      She probably wouldn’t want to jeopardize Tiffany’s “inheritance,” but I wonder when Marla Maples’s NDA expires.

  11. Dee(2) says:
    May 31, 2024 at 10:14 am

    This is a feature, not a bug for the people that support him. This man took out a full page ad 30 years ago calling for the execution of five black teenagers. And even when they were exonerated still kept up with it. Let’s not forget his entire birther nonsense with President Obama, and his reasoning for running for president anyway was because he was made fun of by that same president at the White House correspondents dinner. People speaking out about his atrocious behavior is not going to impact people voting for him in November. If it would, they wouldn’t have voted for him in 2016 or 2020. All this stuff was out there then including all of the horrendous stuff him and his dad did as slumlords in New York in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s. They don’t care.

  12. Barbara says:
    May 31, 2024 at 10:22 am

    Omarosa heard him say it yet she went on to work for and defend him when he was president. Self-hating, anyone?

    As far as his base is concerned, his racism is a feature not a bug.

    • Kitten says:
      May 31, 2024 at 11:10 am

      TBF, she said that she heard “the tape of” him saying it. I don’t really feel like defending Omarosa but presumably she didn’t hear the tape until well after he said it. She still should have never worked for him though–it’s not like she didn’t know who he was regardless.

  13. MissMarirose says:
    May 31, 2024 at 11:02 am

    I’d like someone to ask BIll Rancic about this. He got a huge boost in his career from this show and now it’s clear as day he only won because of Donald Trump’s racism. What does he have to say about that? What does he have to say to Kwame Jackson?

    • Brassy Rebel says:
      May 31, 2024 at 12:00 pm

      Bill Rancic is a disgusting human being. He’s never spoken against Trump. A ruthless opportunist, nothing more.

    • Shell_d says:
      May 31, 2024 at 2:09 pm

      I watched that season, it was obvious to me that Kwame was more talented than Bill. I think Omorosa was put purposely on Kwame’s team because she had been such a disaster as a contestant and as a black man Kwame was not going throw her under the bus on tv. And that’s exactly what happened, I stopped watching after Randall won season 4. He is black and was heads and tails better than any of the contestants. He had to win, it would have been to obvious that it was racism if he lost. But I could see that Trump was literally swallowing bile to name him the winner. He hated every bit of it.

  14. girl_ninja says:
    May 31, 2024 at 11:06 am

    The first season is the only season I ever watched of that show. A few of my besties and I would watch it together and I remember us all being shocked that Kwame didn’t win. He was clearly the best choice and that was WHY he didn’t win. During the show I remember thinking that Dump was a cheap ass bum because one of the prizes was a trip to his tack-ass fake gold house in NYC.

    Also, that last photo of him with no tie is proof that Dump is Ozempic or Wegovy AND wearing a girdle.

  15. Michael says:
    May 31, 2024 at 11:11 am

    His show was produced by those fake Christians Roma Downy and her fake Christian husband who made sure Trump’s many racist and sexist comments were never exposed. They also produced a BS “Christian” movie with an actor playing The Devil who looked just like Barack Obama