Before Khloe Kardashian found out Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had allegedly branded her “the ugly Kardashian,” she wasn’t the politician’s biggest fan.

“I’m very good on energy, and I just never really vibed with him from the start,” Kardashian said, reflecting on her 2009 stint on “The Celebrity Apprentice,” which Trump was host of at the time.

Seven years after Kardashian appeared on the NBC reality competition, the Huffington Post reported last week that several sources with ties to the show said Trump made off-camera remarks about Kardashian and was upset that she was cast on the show instead of one of her siblings.

“What is this? We can’t even get the hot one?” he reportedly said, referring to Kardashian’s sister, Kim. “Why don’t we fire Khloe? She is a fat piglet. Why did we get the ugly Kardashian?”


It’s not cool or appropriate for any person, male or female, to judge someone else by their looks. I find it really cruel. Khloe Kardashian

While promoting her new denim line Good American in West Hollywood on Monday, Kardashian told The Times that she was shocked to learn Trump had made such “cruel” remarks.

“I didn’t think he was saying those things about me,” said the 32-year-old reality TV star. “But he says those comments about a lot of women — really derogatory things. Someone who is that simplistic to judge things off of surface is not someone I want running my country.

“It’s not cool or appropriate for any person, male or female, to judge someone else by their looks,” she continued. “I find it really cruel. It’s wild.”


Kardashian has made no secret of the fact that she didn’t enjoy her stint on “The Celebrity Apprentice.” Earlier this year, she told Chelsea Handler that participating on the program wasn’t her decision.

“My mom made me do it,” she confessed on Handler’s Netflix show. “I hated every minute of it.”

Still, Kardashian isn’t letting Trump’s alleged remarks get her down, especially as she’s in the midst of launching a new jean line created specifically for curvy women sizes 0 to 24.

“I’m a tough cookie, so something that he said — that’s not gonna bother me,” she said. “Ninety percent of the time, [criticism] doesn’t bother me. I’m not sure why. I think I’m just in my own world. But I believe that’s why [those incidents] happen to me, because I can take it. If that’s what it takes to get even just this little group of people to realize how shady and bad and negative that one person is, I can take it.”


amy.kaufman@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @AmyKinLA

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