Schwarzenegger quits 'New Celebrity Apprentice,' blames Trump

[The Ga[M]er.]

It's never easy when you're a TV star who doesn't get on with one of the show's executive producers.

Indeed, Arnold Schwarzenegger, host of the "New Celebrity Apprentice" show, announced on Friday that he's leaving and blamed Donald Trump, formerly the host of the "Celebrity Apprentice" and still an executive producer of the show.

Speaking to Empire magazine, Schwarzenegger said: "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!'"

The ex-Terminator insisted that he got on with everyone on the show.

However, he added: "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. It's a very divisive period now and I think this show got caught up in all that division."

Oddly, the division between Schwarzenegger and Trump became public because of -- who would have imagined? -- Trump's Twitter account.

The president mocked Schwarzengger's lower ratings on Twitter, simultaneously referring to himself as "ratings machine DJT."

Schwarzenegger fired back on Facebook by suggesting they swap jobs. He said that with this move, people would sleep better again.

Still, another aspect to all this is the social media campaign #GrabYourWallet. It's been creditedwith influencing half the sponsors of the "New Celebrity Apprentice" to quit the show, as well as encouraging viewers to avoid the show.

Neither the campaign's organizer, Shannon Coulter, nor NBC immediately responded to a request for comment. Coulter did tell the Wrap, however: "I think it's pretty clear at this point that the Trump brand name is toxic."

 

Oh, I don't know about that. Large Trump buildings continue to be erected with abandon. It's not as if the old "Celebrity Apprentice" still captured too many hearts and souls, even with Trump as its face. Still, the new version's ratings fell by 35 percent when compared to the last old one in 2015.

On Friday, #GrabYourWallet allowed itself a little Twitter-gloat: ".@Schwarzenegger's decision to leave Celebrity Apprentice is giving the #GrabYourWallet community a #FridayFeeling..."

I wonder if the president will be tweeting his weekend feelings on the subject.