Donald Trump refused to let Kwame Jackson win the first season of The Apprentice because he was a ‘black f***’.
The President once told his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen: ‘There was no way I was going to let this black f** win’, using a homophobic slur.
Cohen recounts the episode in his new memoir Disloyal, which puts renewed focus on Trump’s time hosting the reality show, which filmed its first season in 2003 and aired in 2004.
The first season of The Apprentice was a huge hit and made Trump a household name.
There have been rumors for years that there are unreleased tapes of the show in which the President repeatedly uses the N-word – but the tapes have never surfaced.
The two final contestants were Jackson, a Harvard Business School MBA, who was black, and entrepreneur Bill Rancic, who was white.
Donald Trump refused to let Kwame Jackson (circled) win the first season of The Apprentice because he was a ‘black f***’. The President once told his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen: ‘There was no way I was going to let this black f** win’
The two final contestants were Jackson (right), a Harvard Business School MBA, who was black, and entrepreneur Bill Rancic (left) who was white. It wasn’t that Rancic was a Chicago native and the job Trump was offering – with a $250,000 a year salary – was managing his new hotel in the Windy City
Their final challenges were for Jackson to manage a Jessica Simpson concert and Rancic to run a celebrity golf tournament.
Jackson chose Omarosa Manigault-Stallwort, another black contestant who had already been fired on the show, to help him and some reports suggested that was the reason Trump soured on her.
Cohen recounts the episode in his new memoir, Disloyal, which puts renewed focus on Trump’s time hosting the reality show
But in Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump, Cohen writes that Trump had another reason why he went for Rancic.
It wasn’t that Rancic was a Chicago native and the job Trump was offering – with a $250,000 a year salary – was managing his new hotel in the Windy City.
Cohen says Trump told him: ‘There was no way I was going to let this black f** win’.
Jackson has said in interviews that ‘at the time no but now yes’ when asked if he thought race played a role in him not winning.
Jackson has also said Trump has a ‘huge racial blind spot’ and ‘doesn’t have a lot of folks around him of color in executive management roles’.
Manigault Newman went on to work in the Trump administration as the communications director for the Office of Public Liaison.
She wrote a tell-all memoir which said that during his time at The Apprentice, Trump was heard using the N-word ‘multiple times’ and there is a tape to prove it.
Four months after her departure from the White House – Trump fired her – Manigault Newman claims that she checked in with one of her Apprentice sources.
She said: ‘I was told exactly what Donald Trump said – yes, the N-word and others in a classic Trump-goes-nuclear rant – and when he’s said them.
‘During production he was miked, and there is definitely an audio track’.
Jackson (left in 2016) has said in interviews that ‘at the time no but now yes’ when asked if he thought race played a role in him not winning. Jackson has also said Trump has a ‘huge racial blind spot’ and ‘doesn’t have a lot of folks around him of color in executive management roles’. Jackson chose Omarosa Manigault-Stallwort (right), another black contestant who had already been fired on the show, to help him and some reports suggested that was the reason Trump soured on her
During the election campaign Mark Burnett, the producer behind The Apprentice, came under intense pressure to release the tapes but he refused.
Among those who have said there is dirt on the recordings is Bill Pruitt, an Emmy Award-winning producer.
He has tweeted: ‘As a producer on seasons one and two of The Apprentice I assure you: when it comes to the Trump tapes, there are far worse’.
Another industry insider, Chris Nee, an Irish American children’s television producer, has Tweeted: ‘Hearing from producers and crew the ‘N word’ is the ‘much worse’’.
Actor Tom Arnold, a former friend of Trump’s who has turned against him, has waged a public campaign to have the tapes released.
He has Tweeted that Jackson was ‘legit winner of The Apprentice Season One but Donald Trump told Producer Bill Pruitt “America wasn’t ready for an n-word’’.
According to Arnold the show ‘secretly & illegally chose Bill Rancic’.