Donald Trump Proposal For Ivanka Version Of 'The Apprentice' Was Rejected By NBC

Donald Trump had another person in mind to take over for him as host of "The Apprentice," and it wasn't Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The businessman-turned-politician wanted his daughter Ivanka Trump to replace him on "The Apprentice" after he stepped down as host in 2015 to run for president, according to the new book "Apprentice in Wonderland."

"I said, 'The best person to hire would be Ivanka Trump,'" author and Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh, who interviewed Trump after he left the White House in 2021, quoted the former president as saying in the book, according to an excerpt published by Variety.

"I didn't press it. But I felt Ivanka would have been by far the best person you could hire," Trump added.

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As part of his proposal to have Ivanka host "The Apprentice," Trump -- who helmed the round table from 2004 until 2017 -- also pitched that his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. would appear as boardroom advisers on the NBC reality series.

"It was going to be the three of us," Eric told Setoodeh. "There were talks for a little while about it."

Ivanka and her brothers made guest appearances alongside their father in later seasons of "The Apprentice."

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However, Trump's proposal was ultimately rejected by NBC.

The current Republican presidential candidate claimed that the network "didn't like" his pitch because the show would become "like a family thing."

"But I said, 'There's nobody you're going to hire that will come even close to Ivanka,'" Trump said in the book. "They said, 'Huh...' And then they came back with Arnold Schwarzenegger."

After NBC cut ties with Trump following his controversial comments about Mexican immigrants, Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr. joined him at campaign events.

"I think it's pretty hard to say we're going to run with reality TV in a time when you're talking about ending nuclear proliferation around the world," Eric said, according to the new tome. "I'm not sure the two could have worked in tandem."

Schwarzenegger was announced as the host of "The New Celebrity Apprentice" in 2015.

However, the "Terminator" star hosted the show for just one season in 2017 before it was canceled.

Following the show's cancellation, Trump mocked the former California governor over his "bad" ratings.

"Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't voluntarily leaving '[T]he Apprentice,' he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to [a] great show," Trump wrote on X, formerly Twitter, at the time.

Schwarzenegger fired back, "You should think about hiring a new joke writer and a fact checker."

The actor also later blamed Trump's continued involvement in the show as the reason behind its low ratings.

"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 told Empire.

In 2019, the Daily Beast reported that Trump was "keen" on returning to reality TV after his term as president.

Trump reportedly discussed plans with "Apprentice" creator Mark Burnett to launch a new version of the show called "The Apprentice: White House."

However, this reported plan has yet to come to fruition.

Trump launched a third bid for the White House in November 2022 and once more became the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee last month.

"Apprentice in Wonderland" will be released on June 18.