The Associated Press interviewed more than 20 people including former crew members, editors and contestants who described crass behavior by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump behind the scenes of the NBC reality show, The Apprentice.
Trump starred on the competitive reality show, which pitted would be entrepreneurs, including celebrities against each other for a prize, for 13 seasons.
According to the AP, Trump repeatedly demeaned women with sexist language. Show insiders claimed that he rated female contestants by the size of their breasts and talked about which ones he’d like to have sex with.
According to AP’s insiders:
- Eight former crew members recalled that he repeatedly made lewd comments about a camerawoman he said had a nice rear, comparing her beauty to that of his daughter, Ivanka.
- Trump called for female contestants to wear shorter dresses that also showed more cleavage, according to contestant Gene Folkes. Several cast members said Trump had one female contestant twirl before him so he could ogle her figure.
- Randal Pinkett, who won the program in December 2005 and who has recently criticized Trump during his run for president, said he remembered the real estate mogul talking about which female contestants he wanted to sleep with, even though Trump had married former model Melania Knauss earlier that year.
- Former producer Katherine Walker said Trump frequently talked about women’s bodies during the five seasons she worked with him and said he speculated about which female contestant would be “a tiger in bed.”
- Trump asked male contestants whether they would sleep with a particular female contestant, then expressed his own interest. “We were in the boardroom one time figuring out who to blame for the task, and he just stopped in the middle and pointed to someone and said, ‘You’d f*** her, wouldn’t you? I’d f*** her. C’mon, wouldn’t you?'” “Everyone is trying to make him stop talking, and the woman is shrinking in her seat.”
- Walker, who said she was the only high-level female producer during the first season, said Trump turned to her during a break outside of the control room to ask who he should fire. Walker demurred, she said, but noted that team members had told her one contestant had caused her team to lose their business task. Trump raised his hands and cupped them to his chest to ask whether it was a contestant with large breasts, she said. “He said, ‘You mean the one with the’ — and he puts his hands out in a gesture to signal the girl with the giant boobs. He didn’t even know her name,” Walker said, adding that the contestant, Kristi Frank, was fired at the end of the episode.
- “If there was a break in the conversation, he would then look at one of the female cast members, saying, ‘you’re looking kind of hot today, I love that dress on you,’ then he would turn to one of the male cast members and say, ‘wouldn’t you sleep with her?’ and then everyone would laugh,”
- Folkes said he also remembered that Trump “asked one of the women their breast size at one point, or said, ‘are those real or natural?'”
- There were crew members and contestants who described their time working with Trump as professional and positive.
Trump’s spokesperson, Hope Hicks, released a statement categorically denying the charges:
These outlandish, unsubstantiated, and totally false claims fabricated by publicity hungry, opportunistic, disgruntled former employees, have no merit whatsoever. The Apprentice was one of the most successful prime-time television shows of all time and employed hundreds of people over many years, many of whom support Mr. Trump’s candidacy.
The AP’s report is lengthy. I touched on the highlights above. Read the full article HERE.
NBC referred questions to Apprentice producer, Mark Burnett (who also produces The Voice and Survivor and various religious programs.). Burnett, in turn, referred AP to a public relations firm. So far, there has been no response. If inappropriate sexual conduct was the norm on set, I don’t see how the higher ups didn’t know about it. Did any of the cast or crew go to HR with complaints? This could get quite embarrassing for everybody involved.
And the Trump pile on continues. After Trump angered the press with that phony bait and switch a few weeks ago–when he called a press conference to talk about his birther past but turned the event into a commercial for himself and his new DC hotel–I had a feeling the press would FINALLY take their gloves off and do some digging. Trump’s very bad no good week is not getting any better.
