Even the greatest con men in history have needed accomplices to help pull off their schemes. Bill Pruitt, a former producer on “The Apprentice,” made that point explicit in an essay published in Slate on Thursday, hours before his former boss was convicted in Manhattan of 34 felony counts. He also says he heard the show’s host, Donald Trump, use the N-word during the taping of the show’s first season in 2004 and that, importantly, the exchange was caught on tape. If Pruitt’s account is true, then the video he described could shift the course of the 2024 election — but it’s doubtful Americans will ever get the chance to see it.
If Pruitt’s account is true, then the video he described could shift the course of the 2024 election — but it’s doubtful Americans will ever get the chance to see it.
NBC, which is owned by MSNBC’s parent company, NBCUniversal, aired “The Apprentice” during its 15 seasons. NBC dropped Trump as the host of “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2015 soon after he launched his presidential campaign.
But in the early days Pruitt describes, the show was drawing huge ratings as the crew’s editing trickery made Trump seem much more competent than he really was. Pruitt describes laying out the pros and cons of the first season’s two finalists, Bill Rancic and Kwame Jackson, to Trump and then hearing the host express discomfort at the idea of Jackson, who’s Black, winning a one-year contract at his company. He says Trump asked, “Would America buy a n— winning?” Trump, Pruitt writes, was “adamant about not hiring Jackson.”
Pruitt writes that later in the day “Jackson and Rancic are scrutinized by Trump, who, we already know, favors Rancic. Then we wrap production, pack up, and head home. There is no discussion about what Trump said in the boardroom, about how the damning evidence was caught on tape. Nothing happens.” (Stephen Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump 2024 campaign, denied the story in a statement to Slate: “This is a completely fabricated and bull— story that was already peddled in 2016.”)
The casual racism Pruitt says Trump displayed is consistent with a man who was quick to lean into birtherism a few years later. Trump’s refusal to accept that President Barack Obama was born in the U.S. catapulted him into politics. It’s easier to believe that Trump said what Pruitt says he said because it would tap into a similar racist skepticism on the campaign trail. Many Americans didn’t buy that Obama had legitimately won the presidency, helping propel Trump to the presidency in 2016.
Former “Apprentice” contestant-turned-Trump White House staffer-turned-Trump enemy Omarosa Manigault Newman previously claimed to have heard the alleged “N-word tape.” But as NPR pointed out, Manigault Newman, in a 2018 memoir, says only that she was told about the tape. Manigault Newman did provide CBS News with a recording of Trump campaign staffers fretting in October 2016 about the tape’s potential release. Katrina Pierson, a communications staffer on the 2016 campaign, initially denied to CNN that the recorded conversation took place before trying to downplay it as an Omarosa obsession.
The concerns about fallout from the release of their boss’ offensive language were validated when the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape dropped. While it can be hard to remember now, the tape’s release on Oct. 8, 2016, was a bombshell that shook the race. A major presidential candidate’s being so vulgar and misogynistic nearly tanked his campaign as many Republican officials put distance between themselves and their nominee. It’s only because Trump won, and went on to even greater feats of offensiveness, that the “Access Hollywood” tape now feels quaint.
Some seem to be assuming that America will only shrug if the tape Pruitt says exists is played publicly. But I believe it could be a game changer. Consider how close the race is now. NBC News’ latest survey shows Trump’s lead over President Joe Biden within the margin of error. Much of Trump’s position in this race comes from winning over low-information voters who have mostly tuned out the race at this stage. A video (or even audio) of Trump dropping the N-word is the kind of thing that could cut through and lodge within voters’ memories.








