In a recent interview, Holly Robinson Peete said that President Donald Trump called her the n-word when she appeared on Celebrity Apprentice a decade ago.
As the former 21 Jump Street actress explained during an interview on SiriusXM Urban View's The Karen Hunter Show, she said that her time on the show was a "very interesting experience." Peete added that this was before Trump had started to share his birther conspiracy theories regarding Barack Obama with the world, as she said she never would have agreed to do the show if it was after. Initially he was "kind of lovely" to her, she said.
"It was a trip and kind of messy and stuff," she continued. "I found him to be kind of piggish and bullish and stuff, but I didn't find him to be this... who he is now. I did not see that. So, I think the combination of power and corruption and all that stuff just made him go to that next level." Peete, who was facing off against Poison frontman Bret Michaels in the finale, said that shortly after her time on the show she had heard that he had "tossed out an N-word in referring to me."
"I was like, ‘Huh?’ And then when the producer told me when it happened during the finale I remember the moment," she recalled. "I wasn’t in earshot, but I could see them deciding between me and Bret Michaels. "There was a moment where [Trump] was talking with producers and they’re really animated and that was when I heard that he said, ‘They want the N-word to win.’ Because I guess the network wanted me to win or me to be chosen, and Trump wanted Bret. And the quote was, ‘They want the N-word to win.’"
This isn't the first time it's been alleged that Trump used racist language during his hosting run on the Apprentice. For what it's worth, Trump has called himself the "least racist person," which isn't something someone who isn't racist should feel the need to share. At one point, Trump reportedly wanted to do a "Blacks against whites" season of the show, because of course he did.
Peete said that she believes that Trump did, in fact, use a racial slur against him. "I firmly believe he probably uses that language all the time," she concluded.
