Apparently President Donald Trump doesn’t save his inappropriate and offensive remarks for Howard Stern and Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush — a former producer on The Apprentice said Trump made “unfathomably despicable” remarks in filming for the reality show as well.
News that racially-charged comments by President Trump were captured on videos that “are somewhere, in some warehouse” came out Wednesday during an interview with the ex-Producer Bill Pruitt on NPR’s Embedded podcast, which was released Wednesday.
During his time as a reality TV host, Trump made disparaging comments about African Americans and Jewish people, Pruitt said in the interview.
“[It was] very much a racist issue,” he said.
Pruitt said the comments bothered him at the time, but as a producer, he didn’t speak out against the host of the show.
“It was not my place to be, ‘Hey, TV star, you know, the reason we’re all here, shut your goddamn mouth, and don’t ever, ever repeat what you just said,’” Pruitt said. “Of course, you know, you think that. You go back to your hotel room or your apartment that they put you up in. And you know, you do some soul-searching.”
Pruitt said Trump’s wealth was exaggerated on The Apprentice, while his bankruptcies and business missteps were downplayed and brushed over. He feels partly responsible for creating the character that America eventually elected president.
“We told a story,” he said. “And now all of a sudden we’re here. A cultural icon emerged because we weren’t necessarily truthful about our portrayal.”
Pruitt has since left reality television and now works on documentaries.
Speculation about Trump’s offensive chatter on stowed-away Apprentice tapes first started swirling after the hot mic Access Hollywood tape came out days before the election last year in which Trump uttered his now infamous “grab them by the p*ssy” line and bragged about sexually assaulting women.
At the time Pruitt hinted the Access Hollywood tape was “just the beginning.”
“As a producer on seasons 1 & 2 of #theapprentice I assure you: when it comes to the #trumptapes there are far worse,” he tweeted in October 2016.
As a producer on seasons 1 & 2 of #theapprentice I assure you: when it comes to the #trumptapes there are far worse. #justthebegininng
— Bill Pruitt (@billpruitt) October 8, 2016
Another producer, Chris Nee, backed up Pruitt’s claim, saying she had heard from other “producers/crew” that Trump used the N-word.
Non-disclosure agreements and the fact that Trump is still an executive producer on the show have helped keep a lid on the tapes — if they exist at all. The White House denied the existence of any such tapes in a statement to NPR.
