Bill Pruitt, a former producer of NBC’s The Apprentice, claimed he heard Donald Trump use the n-word on the show’s set in a piece written for Slate. Pruitt said Trump’s comments were caught on tape, adding to longstanding rumors of Trump using the slur while filming The Apprentice.
“Would America buy a n#### winning?” Trump said, per Pruitt.
Trump allegedly used the n-word to refer to Kwame Jackson, a Black contestant on the first season of The Apprentice. Jackson was the runner-up to Bill Rancic, the first winner of the Trump-hosted reality competition.
Pruitt spoke out more than 20 years later due to the expiration of a nondisclosure agreement.
“I was one of four producers involved in the first two seasons,” he wrote. “During that time, I signed an expansive nondisclosure agreement that promised a fine of $5 million and even jail time if I were to ever divulge what actually happened. It expired this year.”
Trump denied using the n-word in the past. His campaign reiterated the denial in response to Pruitt’s article.
“This is a completely fabricated and b####### story that was already peddled in 2016,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. “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.”
The Apprentice creator Mark Burnett previously claimed he cannot release tapes from the show. Pruitt believed the tapes would “never be found.”
“MGM owns Mark Burnett’s production company and The Apprentice is one of its properties,” MGM and Burnett said in a joint statement in 2016. “Despite reports to the contrary, Mark Burnett does not have the ability nor the right to release footage or other material from The Apprentice. Various contractual and legal requirements also restrict MGM’s ability to release such material.”
Trump, who is running for president once again, awaits a New York jury’s verdict in his hush money trial. Prosecutors charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The jury began its deliberations on Wednesday (May 29). UPDATE: Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts.
The hush money case is one of four criminal cases against Trump. He is the first U.S. president to be charged with a crime.