The Real Reason Donald Trump Was Fired From The Apprentice

Former President Donald Trump has long courted controversy, even before he threw his hat into the political arena. But a scandal related to his political career was what ultimately caused NBC to pink slip him right after Season 14 of "The Celebrity Apprentice" aired. The reason? Comments about Mexican immigrants Trump made during a speech he gave in 2015 announcing his candidacy for the presidency. 

During the speech, as reported by CBS News, Trump declared, "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best ... they're sending people that have lots of problems ... they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." NBC responded to those comments by booting Trump from "The Apprentice" within days of his speech. "Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump. At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values," a press statement read. NBC also dropped coverage of the 64th Annual Miss USA pageant, which mainly aired on the Reelz Network that year. Meanwhile, "The Apprentice" hung in limbo for two years, but was eventually resurrected with another familiar famous face at the helm.

With former President Donald Trump officially out of the running as "The Apprentice" host, NBC turned to another celebrity to guide the game show. They picked movie star and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, who hosted Season 15 of the show in 2017, which was met with poor ratings. The governator soon announced he wasn't interested in doing another season of the program, and it has subsequently lain fallow.

Ironically, Schwarzenegger's involvement in the series resulted in another controversy with Trump, as he blamed Trump's ongoing association with the show for its negative reception. "With Trump being involved in the show people have a bad taste and don't want to participate as a spectator or as a sponsor or in any other way support the show," Schwarzenegger told Empire Magazine. "Everyone I ran into came up to me and said 'I love the show ... but I turned it off because as soon as I read Trump's name I'm outta there!'" Since Schwarzenegger previously attributed the box office failure of "The Last Action Hero" to politics, he clearly saw the writing on the wall with "The Apprentice."

Trump fired back on his X, formerly known as Twitter, account, writing, "Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show." Schwarzenegger responded by tweeting back, "You should think about hiring a new joke writer and a fact checker." "The Apprentice" later surfaced to haunt Trump once more when an anecdote about a racial slur he uttered before some of the show's crew was repeated in a Slate article written by former producer Bill Pruitt.