Clay Aiken (right) with Donald Trump and Arsenio Hall at the Celebrity Apprentice Live Finale in 2012. Photo / Getty
Clay Aiken (right) with Donald Trump and Arsenio Hall at the Celebrity Apprentice Live Finale in 2012. Photo / Getty
Clay Aiken has revealed Donald Trump did not decide who was fired on The Apprentice, despite the president turning the slogan into his world-famous catchphrase.
Aiken, who was a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice in 2012, claims Trump was not the one making the final decision on the show and heinstead relied on a teleprompter, according to the Daily Mail.
"Trump didn't decide who got fired on Apprentice, I mean, NBC made those decisions," the 38-year-old told the North Carolina News and Observer in a recent podcast interview.
"There used to be a little thing right on his desk that looked like a phone - he pretended it was a phone - but it was actually a teleprompter where the producers were sending him notes.
"He didn't know that people were getting in fights during the week while we were doing these tasks, the producers did. And they'd send him notes and he'd say, 'Oh you two didn't get along'."
Aiken, who unsuccessfully ran for office in his home state of North Carolina in 2014, added: "It was very much, 'I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV'."
The one-time American Idol runner-up then spoke about how he believes Trump is probably running his presidency the same way.
"I think to myself, the man as president definitely has a teleprompter sitting on his desk right now with people telling him, 'Well such and such is in the healthcare bill, don't say this'," Aiken told the News and Observer's Domecast.
"I feel like half the time his teleprompter has broken down as president and he doesn't know what's going on."
Clay Aiken was a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice in 2012. Photo / Getty
Aiken then explained why he was making the comments now, saying he was not trying to undermine Trump or attack him personally.
"I'm not saying this to be incendiary, but Donald Trump isn't the businessman that people believe he is because we saw him on TV playing the Apprentice.
"And he did look like he was leading, But on The Apprentice he doesn't lead."
Aiken, who ran in 2014 as a Democrat but said last year he was planning to vote for Trump, didn't hold back on attacking the other party either.
The 38-year-old said the constant attacks on Trump - however warranted or not they may be - feed into the president's claims he is the victim of bias.
"I think the Democrats, to some degree, hurt themselves more by constantly saying how horrible Trump is and how horrible the Republicans are because, it just, I think it helps it his argument that people are biased against him when all they hear is he's a fascist, all these horrible things about him," Aiken said.
"I kind of feel like we'd be better served to let people see what he's going to do or not do."
Aiken was the runner-up on Celebrity Apprentice in 2012, losing out in the finale to Arsenio Hall.
