Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump attends a press conference at Trump Tower in New York after he was found guilty of falsifying business records to conceal a 2016 affair with porn star Stormy Daniels (Stormy Daniels) was convicted in a criminal trial of payments made to keep him quiet, held at Trump Tower in New York the next day.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Gene Folkes was just dumped as a contestant “apprentice” and expressed sympathy to a staff member at a bar in the lobby of Trump Tower. He’s furious – and not just about being kicked off the reality show after stardom, Donald Trumputtering his catchphrase: “You’re fired.”
Foxx, one of two black contestants chosen for the season in 2010, felt insulted minutes earlier when Trump called him inarticulate and accused him of being illiterate during a boardroom tirade.
Just as the black female staff member who served as the event manager was comforting him, Trump suddenly appeared at the bar.
“He came up to me and said, ‘Is this your girl? Because you two would make a really good couple, you both have the same background,'” Fox told The Associated Press.
The contestant manager quietly reminded Trump that she worked for him. Fox said Trump then made remarks similar to those he made in the boardroom, but were never aired on television.
“He said again, ‘I didn’t use the N-word,’ and then he walked away and that was that,” said Fox, a New York consultant, podcast host and U.S. Air Force veteran.
As Trump seeks to win over African-American voters in his third bid for the White House, new allegations surface about his disrespectful behavior towards black people inside the Midtown skyscraper that opened his show and political career. Questions remain about whether the acts were videotaped.
Former “Apprentice” producer Bill Pruitt recently published a report alleging that Trump actually used a racist slur to refer to Kwame Jackson, a black contestant who was a finalist in the show’s first season. . A spokesman for the Trump campaign strongly refuted the claim, calling it false and politically motivated. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s campaign followed Pruitt’s account on social media.
Trump, who hosted “The Apprentice” from 2004 to 2015, has long denied such claims and called former contestants who criticized him “failing wannabes” motivated by greed. But he has been subject to accusations of racial discrimination in his professional and political life. 1973 discrimination lawsuit Against his real estate business, he pushed for execution Five black and Latino youths were later acquitted rape accusations against him Years of fueling conspiracy theories President Obama—the first black president of the United States—was not born in the United States.
The former Republican president’s first campaign in 2016 was rocked by his behavior on “The Apprentice” and his other appearances on NBC, particularly in the film, which he said He can sexually assault women And got away with it because he was a “star.” MGM Studios acquired the production company that produced the show, which has since been Amazon.
Nearly a decade after Trump left his reality TV role to run for president, his television career remains central to his biography and politics. Before Trump launched his first campaign event from the building’s lobby, it unveiled Trump Tower to tens of millions of people as a symbol of power and success. Last week, the same hall was He appeared in court for the first time since his conviction The hush-money scheme involved 34 felony counts to influence the 2016 election.
“‘The Apprentice’ is probably underrated as a source of this image-building,” said Joel Penny, a professor at Montclair State University who studies the intersection of pop culture and politics. “No one can compete in name recognition, brand recognition and familiarity.”
The role of NBC and Amazon
The Apprentice and its spin-offs have aired for more than a decade, featuring people from all walks of life and, later, celebrities, competing through contrived business challenges to win Trump’s favor and potentially win over him Get a job in an organization.
Hundreds of cast and crew members have signed nondisclosure agreements, limiting their ability to reveal what happened inside Trump Tower or any footage of the former president. The show’s producers and the network that airs it also declined to release the unaired footage. The Associated Press last week reached out to two dozen former crew members and contestants about Trump’s behind-the-scenes behavior, with some saying they wanted to know how contractual agreements insulated Trump from blowback for politically destabilizing rhetoric.
Foxx said he believed his exchange with Trump inside the bar was recorded because he still wore a microphone.
After being fired in October 2010, Fox blogged about his time on the show. He said he quickly received a call from NBC executives. According to documents provided by Folkes, in early November, NBC’s then-vice president of legal affairs Shelly Tremain issued him a cease-and-desist order and said that if he continued to talk about his involvement in the series, it would violate his “app agreement.”
Fox fired back at Tremaine’s team in an email, calling his portrayal on the show “unfortunate, inaccurate and a stereotype of members of a protected class,” according to a copy of the email seen by The Associated Press. “A review of the entire boardroom scene in Episode 5 makes the false characterizations and stereotypes clear… I have no interest in publicly commenting on Mr. Trump.”
Fox said the network did provide him with additional therapy sessions after his firing, which helped him deal with the reputational damage he suffered as a contestant. NBC declined to comment and Treme did not return messages.
“After serving for ten years, I can handle a lot of stress. It’s not like, ‘Oh, he fired me and hurt my feelings,'” Fox said. “When I say I’m offended, that’s a high bar to cross.”
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement that “these completely fabricated allegations” had been debated in 2016 “and thoroughly debunked,” adding that he believed all of them were rooted in in electoral politics.
“Now that crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats are losing the election and President Trump continues to dominate, they are bringing up false stories from the past because they are desperate,” he said.
Fox has previously spoken out against Trump’s candidacy and his comments about female cast and crew members. AP Survey Published in October 2016. Uncovering the 2005 tapes In it, Trump made lewd remarks about sexually assaulting women.
The recording sparked outrage, with some Republicans calling on Trump to withdraw a month before the election. He didn’t – and won. But many of his opponents continue to pressure those involved with “The Apprentice” to release their dossiers, in part because they believe tapes exist of Trump using racist slurs.
Entertainment giant MGM said in 2016 that it owned the reality show’s archives and that contractual obligations prevented it from unilaterally releasing any unaired archived material. In 2022, the online shopping giant Amazon completed its acquisition of MGM, one of the oldest film companies in Hollywood. Amazon-MGM Studios declined to comment.
The show’s executive producer, Mark Burnett, also said he did not have the ability or rights to release clips from the show. NBC said it does not own the rights to the series and only obtained broadcast permission from Burnett.
a new account
In an article published last week in Slate magazine, Pruitt described a meeting with Trump in the show’s conference room, where Trump is known to fire contestants.
According to Pruitt, a manager at Trump’s company suggested choosing Jackson over the other remaining contestant, Bill Rancic, who is white. Pruitt wrote that after a debate over Jackson’s performance on the show, Trump backed down, then asked whether America would accept a black victory and used a racist slur to refer to Jackson.
Pruitt said he was coming forward now because his confidentiality agreement expires this year and could result in a $5 million fine if violated. He told The Associated Press that he had tried to recall all quotes from the article and that the conversation had been recorded.
“He was about to run for a second term as president of the United States, and I heard him use a term that should have and would have permanently removed him from politics, if more people had heard of it,” Pruitt said. “Any No one who has the ability to use it should lead the country.”
The Trump campaign has denied Pruitt’s assertion that Trump used a slur. “Prove it,” campaign spokesman Zhang wrote on the X platform, adding that Biden allies were “selling” the story “because Biden is losing support among black Americans.” The Democratic president’s support among black voters has plummeted since taking office.
In 2005, a year after Pruitt claimed Trump used the slur, the former president proposed a “black” versus “white” version of “The Apprentice” on “The Howard Stern Show,” telling Listener He’s considering doing an episode pitting the Nine against each other.
Jackson said in an interview that Trump had never said such slanderous words to his face. But he said Pruitt’s account and conversations about Trump’s tape underscored the country’s inability to address the broader issue of what speech voters will tolerate in 2024.
“To me, the bigger issue is that none of this matters because America is perfectly fine with overt and covert racism. If there was conclusive evidence that Trump called me the N-word and a tape came out tomorrow, that would What will change? Jackson is president of his own brand marketing, diversity and inclusion consultancy.
political pressure
Presumptive Republican nominee Trump believes Biden’s immigration and economic policies have deprived the black community of jobs and resources. He and his allies say he can narrow Biden’s advantage among black voters, who have long been a core constituency for Democrats.
He also sought to gain a boost from his criminal charges Recommended for primarily black audiences in February African Americans became more closely associated with him as a result of his prosecution.
Biden has A number of measures have been proposed Benefits for Black Americans include more funding for historically black colleges and universities, forgiveness of federal student loan debt and pardons for federal marijuana possession charges. His campaign has also sought to draw attention to Trump’s past.
On Monday, Biden’s campaign released a TikTok video reporting Pruitt’s accusations and Omarosa Manigault Newman’s confirmation that she had heard Trump use the slur.
“Donald Trump is exactly who we know he is — a lifelong racist,” one woman said on TikTok. “Black voters drove Donald Trump from the White House in 2020, and we will do it again this November.”
Marshawn Evans-Daniels, one of two black contestants on “The Apprentice” season 4, said she never heard Trump use racist language on set.
“‘The Apprentice’ was a baptism at the highest levels of business, and I’m always praised for it,” says attorney, author and consultant Evans Daniels. “I’ve never had a negative experience, but that doesn’t usually happen when you’re in the room.”
That same season, winner Randal Pinkett got a chance to work for Trump. But Pinkett, who is also Black, said Trump treated him differently than other previous winners and asked him to share his title with a white contestant.
“If I believe Donald is innocent, then what he did to me was racially insensitive,” Pinkett said. general. “If I didn’t give him the benefit of the doubt, which I didn’t do, that would be racist. So I’m not surprised that he would say the ‘N’ word.”
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