Apprentice Star Penn Jillette Drops Trump/Racist Rant Bombshell That Has Donald Seething

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Magician, comedian, and “provocative public intellectual” Penn Jillette appeared on The Apprentice. He said Donald Trump used offensive and racist language during the taping of that show. Then, the Las Vegas entertainer had some other remarkable things to say in an interview with Vulture.

The larger half of the Penn and Teller team confirmed that author and former White House aide, Omarosa Manigault Newman’s, claim that Trump said the “N-word.” When Vulture’s David Marchese asked some pointed questions, Jillette gave him some enlightening answers.

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Marchese asked whether the chairman of MGM Worldwide Television Group and producer of The Apprentice, Mark Burnett, had tapes of the POTUS spouting off before he was the president of these United States. He asked if Trump had used racist language during taping of The Apprentice, to which the comedian answered:

‘Yeah, I was in the room.’

The Vulture reporter pressed him again, and Jillette said:

‘Oh, yeah.’

Then, Marchese asked the entertainer if he would repeat what Trump said. Jillette replied:

‘No. If Donald Trump had not become president, I would tell you all the stories. But the stakes are now high and I am an unreliable narrator. What I do, as much as anything, is I’m a storyteller. And storytellers are liars. So I can emotionally tell you things that happened racially, sexually, and that showed stupidity and lack of compassion when I was in the room with Donald Trump and I guarantee you that I will get details wrong. I would not feel comfortable talking about what I felt I saw in that room — because when I was on that show I was sleeping four to five hours a night. I was uncomfortable. “Stress” is the wrong word, but I was not at my best. Then at the end of a day, they put you in a room and they bring out a guy [Trump] who has no power whatsoever and he’s capricious and petty and …’

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Marchese then said “You’ve got to pretend to care what he thinks” (during The Apprentice) and Jillette replied:

‘Yeah! It’s your job. You sit at this table and this man rambles — pontificatesis giving him too much credit. And because you live in the modern world you’ve heard Trump ramble. But you’ve heard Trump ramble when he thinks he’s being careful. Imagine when he feels he can be frank. And I will tell you things, but I will very conscientiously not give you quotations because I believe that would be morally wrong. I’m not trying to protect myself. This really is a moral thing.’

The reporter clarified, asking:

‘Just so I’m clear: It’s a moral thing because it would be wrong to misquote him or because you don’t want to unduly have an effect on politics?’

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Jillette answered:

‘If he hadn’t become president, I would be telling stories all day long. And if someone were to say, “Penn didn’t get that exactly right,” you’d go “Who cares?”’

Marchese noted that accuracy was more important now. The entertainer replied:

‘Yeah, the stakes are really high. Not for me. Nothing I can say here hurts my career. But for the world the stakes are higher. He (President Trump) would be reading. And what I’m trying to do here is tell you the story emotionally without telling you specifics.’

Then, Jillette continued:

‘He would say racially insensitive things that made me uncomfortable. I don’t think he ever said anything in that room like “African-Americans are inferior” or anything about rape or grabbing women, but of those two hours every other day in a room with him, every ten minutes was fingernails on chalkboard. He would ask one cast member if he’d rather have sex with this woman or that woman. He would be reading on the web about a real-estate deal he’d made — like he’d sold his house for a certain amount and someone on some blog had said he should have gotten more. Then he would turn and say that making X amount on a house makes him a good businessman, right? I would say to him, “What are you talking about? You don’t know who it is reporting that. Is that Forbes?” He had no idea.’

The magician went on:

‘So when it came to think about supporting him for president, I digested that information from being on the show with him and said, “Absolutely not. He would be a terrible president.” And because I’d been around him and some people cared what I thought, I said that publicly every chance I got — while also saying he’s a good reality show. You want someone capricious and petty and narcissistic to be on your reality show. And boy, I hate to say this, but playing tapes of him doing that job might be unfair. I want those tapes to be used against him, but it might be unfair.’

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Then, the reporter asked:

But isn’t there enough of an established behavioral pattern with President Trump that tapes of him saying racially or sexually demeaning things maybe fits into the larger context of who he is and what he thinks?’

Jillette responded:

‘That is fair. But I can’t stress this enough: I do not respect Donald Trump. Don Junior said — and I’m proud of this — that of everybody who had been on Celebrity Apprentice, I was the one who enjoyed it the most. By the way, I didn’t enjoy it. And I was also the one who liked his father the most. Don Junior said to me, “Why do you like him so much?” And I said, “I made a movie called The Aristocrats.’

Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.