Tom Arnold, host of Viceland’s “The Hunt for the Trump Tapes,” says he knows exactly what’s contained on lost “Apprentice” tapes from Donald Trump’s years on the show — even though he can’t get his hands on them.
Arnold spoke to the “Shoot This Now” podcast about his new show “The Hunt for The Trump Tapes.” You can listen on Apple or right here.
Arnold said he has friends who worked on the NBC reality show for all 15 seasons of its run — and that they recorded now-missing footage of Trump sexually harassing employees and using the N-word.
“He’s incompetent. He doesn’t know what’s going on. He’s racist, he says the N-word, he says, ‘You’re f—able’ right into camera, to the camera operators,” Arnold tells us in the video above. “They have to pull him out. The producers have a producers’ meeting [and tell him] ‘Whoa, you can’t sexually harass the women here.’”
Arnold said Mark Burnett, a Trump friend and the executive producer of the series, is well aware of the situation but has kept the tapes hidden from the public.
The White House and a rep for Burnett did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Despite the level of detail Arnold describes, he said he cannot reveal the names of the sources who revealed the contents of the tapes.
Arnold is not alone in his contention that Trump has been recorded saying the “n-word” — or in his inability, so far, to provide proof. Former “Apprentice” contestant and White House aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman said in August that she has heard “the tape,” without producing it.
Still, Arnold persists — and got a TV show out of it.
His search for the “Apprentice” video — and other undiscovered Trump videos — is the subject of “The Hunt for the Trump Tapes,” a series Viceland describes as “All the President’s Men” meets “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
At one point, Arnold contends, the search turned violent. He filed battery charges against Burnett last month after accusing Burnett of choking him at an Emmys party.
Burnett’s wife, Roma Downey, said that it was actually Arnold who ambushed her husband at the event. She tweeted an image of her hand, which she said was bruised.
“Got this bruise tonight when Tom Arnold tried to ambush my husband Mark and me at a charity event. Is your TV show worth it Tom?” she wrote. “Please stop.”
In his talk with TheWrap, Arnold denied the altercation was a publicity stunt for the series.
Arnold travels high and low in search of tapes, meeting with some of the most respected journalists in the country, such as New Yorker writer Jane Mayer — and also with a mystery man in a bunny suit. The costume, the man says, is to protect his identity.
Arnold makes the case that he’s qualified for the undertaking because he has traveled in oddly similar circles with Trump. Both were quintessential Howard Stern guests, and they even used used to go to the Playboy Mansion together, Arnold said.
But for all his stories, Arnold hasn’t, so far, shown us the tapes. For some viewers, that will relegate “The Hunt for the Trump Tapes” to the ever-growing “for entertainment purposes only” subsection of journalism. But at least it’s entertaining.
“The Hunt for the Trump Tapes” airs on Viceland at 10:30 p.m. every Tuesday.
