In recently resurfaced audio of an interview with Howard Stern, Donald Trump revealed that he once pitched a "whites against blacks" season of The Apprentice. The New York Times revealed the audio over the weekend, while also detailing just how quickly NBC executives shot the idea down.
He reportedly pitched the idea all the way back in 2005, but NBC weren't on board with his pitch at all. "It would be nine blacks against nine whites," Trump told Stern in the clip. "All highly educated, very smart, strong, beautiful people." He went to the network executives before Season 4 started and claimed the idea would make The Apprentice the "highest-rated show on television." After the pitch, executives had a "series of can-you-believe-this conversations inside a network."
One of the former bosses at the network added that they responded to the idea by saying, "Uh, I don't think so." Trump continued to chase the idea down, however, and made sure to tell Stern about it sometime around the time he pitched it to NBC. He asked if Stern and his co-host Robin Quivers liked it. Stern said "yes," while Quivers said, "Well, I think you're going to have a riot."
Stern acknowledged that "on some level it's wrong," and asked Trump, "Wouldn't that set off a racial war in this country?" Trump replied, "See, actually, I don't think it would. I think that it would be handled very beautifully by me." He then proceeded to call himself "very diplomatic." Stern said he "would watch" that proposed season "because you'd want to know when the riot starts."
