Former 'Apprentice' producer Bill Pruitt tells all on the Trump he knew

Bill Pruitt can draw a straight line from Donald Trump’s time as the star of the TV show “The Apprentice” to Trump’s political career.

Pruitt, a producer on the first two seasons of the show, wrote an essay for Slate, detailing his experiences working with the former president on the hugely successful reality show.

Pruitt had been unable to write or talk about his time on the show for the past two decades: He and other producers had to sign nondisclosure agreements with serious financial penalties if they were broken. That NDA lapsed recently, paving the way for Pruitt to write about his time working with Trump. Pruitt says the show created an aura around Trump that proved instrumental in propelling him to the White House.

“He was not, by any stretch, a successful New York real estate tycoon like we made him out to be,” he says. “We needed to legitimize Donald Trump as someone who all these young, capable people would be clamoring over one another trying to get a job working for.”

The ‘con’ – as Pruitt puts it – worked: The finale of the first season attracted over 28 million viewers. The Apprentice series spanned 15 seasons and led to multiple spin-off shows, including a British version hosted by UK billionaire Alan Sugar.

“Early on, [Trump] felt that he was above it all, in terms of this reality show that he had agreed to lend his name to,” says Pruitt. But Trump’s skepticism did not last long. “He recognized the show could elevate his brand.”

Not only did the series launch Trump to a new level of national stardom and ultimately the White House – it created celebrities from its contestants, including former Trump Administration political aide Omarosa Newman and many of the show’s winners. Trump’s older children became close advisors on the show too, and celebrities flocked to the program as contestants and guest board members.

But Pruitt says even from that first season there were signs of an off-camera Trump who was very different than the one the show presented to the world.

Early indicators included issues with how Trump managed his job as host of the show.

“We always hoped that within the confines of the constrictions we had for him that he would basically be able to just deliver the informational aspects of his job of hosting on camera thoroughly and clearly and concisely,” Pruitt says. “He couldn't.”

There were other challenges, too.

“You would see Donald Trump just go off on somebody — he would be impulsive,” Pruitt says, “and he would be railing against somebody out of nowhere.”

Pruitt’s most damning allegation is that Trump used a racist slur when discussing reasons to not select contestant Kwame Jackson as the first winner of the Apprentice series – who was up against eventual season one winner Bill Rancic.

"Trump said, [...] but, would America buy - and used the N-word - winning?"

“We just swiftly moved past that,” Pruitt says. “No one said anything. No one walked out of the room, which I think most of us wish we had.”

Pruitt added that since his article was published, other producers from the show’s history have come to him with further allegations of Trump uttering racial slurs and more.

“A female production designer has shared with me about some of the misogynistic things she had to put up with from Trump,” he says.

The Trump campaign has refuted the allegation and other statements by Pruitt in his interview with Here & Now and in his Slate article.

In a statement, Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said that they were “completely fabricated accusations,” adding people were “bringing up old fake stories from the past because they are desperate.”

Thomas Danielian produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Micaela Rodriguez. Danielian also adapted it for the web.