Gene Folkes, a former contestant on “The Apprentice,” is photographed in a park in downtown Manhattan on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in New York. A producer’s new account of Donald Trump’s behavior on “The Apprentice” is resurfacing allegations about whether he mistreated Black people who appeared on the show. Stefan Jeremiah/Associated Press Gene Folkes had just been jettisoned as a contestant on “The Apprentice” and was commiserating with a crew member at a bar inside the lobby of Trump Tower.
He was indignant – and not just at having been kicked off the reality show after its star, Donald Trump, had delivered his catchphrase: “You’re fired.” One of two Black contestants chosen for that season in 2010, Folkes was insulted that Trump had called him inarticulate and accused him of illiteracy in a lengthy boardroom tirade minutes earlier. As the crew member, a Black woman who worked as a contestant manager, consoled him, Trump suddenly appeared at the bar.
“He came up and he asked me: ‘Is this your woman? Because you two would make a really great couple. You both have the same background,’” Folkes told The Associated Press. The contestant manager quietly reminded Trump that she worked for him.
Then, Trump made a comment similar to something he uttered in the boardroom that never aired on TV, Folkes said. “He said again, ‘It’s not like I used the N-word,’ and then he walked off, and that was that,” said Folkes, a New York-based consultant,.