Arnold Schwarzenegger wasted no time responding to President Donald Trump’s digs at the former California governor’s ratings on the reality show “Celebrity Apprentice” during the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning. During his comments at the 64th annual breakfast, Trump talked about his “tremendous success” during his 15 years on “The Apprentice” before stepping down to run for president, and slammed the “big, big movie star” they hired to replace him: Arnold Schwarzenegger. “We know how that turned out,” he said. “Theratings went right down the tubes. It’s been a total disaster.”
“I want to just pray for Arnold, if we can, for those ratings, OK?” Trump said, laughing.
Schwarzenegger took to Twitter to respond.
“Hey Donald I have a great idea, why don’t we switch jobs?You take over TV becauseyou’re such an expert in ratings, and I take over your job,” Schwarzenegger fired back in a video he posted on Twitter.
“Then people can finally sleep comfortably again. Huh?”
The National Prayer Breakfast? pic.twitter.com/KYUqEZbJIE
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) February 2, 2017
A spokesman forSchwarzenegger sent a statement to ABC following the exchange.
“Arnold is praying that President Trump can start improving his own approval ratings, which were the worst in history for an incoming president, by taking his job seriously and working inclusively,” spokesman Daniel Ketchell said in the statement.
Schwarzenegger spokesman in response to Pres. Trump: “Arnold is praying that President Trump can start improving his own approval ratings.” pic.twitter.com/OHseIHzoeh
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 2, 2017
Trump andSchwarzenegger have duked it out publicly before.
When Schwarzenegger took over as host of “Celebrity Apprentice,” Trump blasted the series premiere, which sawa35 percent dip in ratings from when Trump hostedthe prior year.
Trump called himself a “ratings machine” andsaid Schwarzenegger got “swamped, aka destroyed,” and was no match for himself.
Schwarzenegger, a Republican for more than 30 years, has saidhedidn’t vote for Trumpand recently he’spublicly criticized the president’simmigration ban. Ahead of the 2016 election, Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California, said if he was able, he would have run for president.
“If I’d been born in America, I would’ve run,” the Austrian-born actor turned politicianhe told Adweek.
