Getty Schwarzenegger to leave 'Apprentice,' blames Trump

Arnold Schwarzenegger will not return for a second season of NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice," blaming President Donald Trump’s affiliation as toxic for the show.

“With Trump being involved in the show, people have a bad taste and don't want to participate as a spectator or as a sponsor, or in any other way support the show,” Schwarzenegger, the former California governor, told the British film magazine Empire. “It's a very divisive period now and I think this show got caught up in all that division."


In a running feud with Trump over the show’s ratings, Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said he would not return for a second season if asked. Confirming a report in The Wrap that many sponsors had left the show after boycott threats, Schwarzenegger told Empire, “It's not about the show … because everyone I ran into came up to me and said, 'I love the show ... but I turned it off because as soon as I read Trump's name, I'm outta there!'"

He added, “When people found out that Trump was still involved as executive producer and was still receiving money from the show, then half the people [started] boycotting it."

Schwarzenegger, who replaced Trump on the program, supported Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the Republican presidential primary and refused to vote for Trump in the general election.

Trump tweeted shortly after the show's debut in January that Schwarzenegger “got swamped” in the ratings.

Schwarzenegger later took issue with Trump for bypassing former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado for agriculture secretary and criticized the president’s order, held up amid a legal challenge, barring citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.