At Thursday's annual National Prayer Breakfast, President Trump kicked off his speech by asking religious leaders to pray for Arnold Schwarzenegger's Apprentice ratings, as well as bragging about his own.
He said:
He’s a special, special friend, Mark Burnett, for the wonderful introduction. So true. So true. I said to the agent, I’m sorry. The only thing wrong, I got on the phone, fired him myself, because he said you don’t want to do it, it’ll never work, it’ll never work. My agent said it will never work, you don’t want to do it. But I really fired him after it became the number one show. It became so successful and he wanted a commission…that’s what I really said. But we have tremendous success on The Apprentice. When I ran for president, I had to leave the show. That’s when I knew for sure I was doing it. They hired a big, big movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to take my place. And we know how that turned out. The ratings went right down the tubes. It’s been a total disaster. And Mark will never, ever bet against Trump again. And I want to just pray for Arnold, if we can, for those ratings. But we’ve have had an amazing life together, the last 14 years. An outstanding man. Thank you for introducing me. Appreciate it. It’s a great honor.