A number of former contestants on Donald Trump’s reality TV program The Apprentice have either endorsed the businessman, or are now playing active roles on his campaign team, but four former contestants recently unloaded on their former TV boss.
The group of one-time Trump admirers, led by The Apprentice Season Four winner Dr. Randal Pinkett, urged the GOP front-runner to ratchet-down his “divisive rhetoric” on the campaign trail. They said they were “shocked and saddened” by what he has said, so far.
“We are all disappointed and in some ways shocked to see what is being spewed from Donald regarding his views on women, immigrants, and the list goes on,” Pinkett, who has worked with New Jersey Democrats in recent election cycles, said. “We strongly condemn Donald’s campaign of sexism, xenophobia, racism, violence and hate.”
Pinkett was joined in person by Tara Dowdell, who has parlayed her appearance on the TV show into a marketing company that has worked with a number of liberal causes in New Jersey, and Season 1 runner-up Kwame Jackson, who has launched a number of companies with a net worth of several million dollars, at a news conference in Manhattan. They were joined by “Godfidence” Christian entrepreneur and motivational speaker Marshawn Evans Daniels, who also appeared on Season 4 of the show, via live video link.
Trump was less than pleased with the former apprentices, calling them “failing wannabes out of hundreds of contestants.”
“How quickly they forget. Nobody would know who they are if it weren’t for me,” he said after the press conference. “They just want to get back into the limelight like they had when they were with [the Trump Organization]. Total dishonesty and disloyalty.”
