Rosie O’Donnell acts like she always knew what President Donald Trump was really like, but she thinks other Americans might’ve been misled by The Apprentice. The reality competition show portrayed Trump as a successful business person, which is why O’Donnell sees it as a work of “fiction.” In reality, she said, he’s actually just a “mediocre man.”
During a recent appearance on The View co-host Ana Navarro’s podcast, the two women discussed Trump’s rise to power and how he seemingly benefited from name recognition, even though his reputation wasn’t necessarily the greatest.
O’Donnell made it clear that she thinks ‘The Apprentice’ is partially to blame for Trump becoming president.
Given the things Trump did and said even before he was elected president the first time, the two women acted a bit baffled by the people who actually went out and voted for him. Trump didn’t appeal to people in the same way that politicians typically do. As Navarro explained, it seems like part of Trump’s appeal to people was that he was a well-known “jerk.”
“I actually think that helped him,” Navarro told O’Donnell. “I think that helped him get elected president in 2016. The fact that people knew who he was, right? They knew him as this braggadocious jerk from The Apprentice… he had name ID as being kind of like what he is, right? A jerk.”
She added people were used to seeing Trump act like a “self-centered jerk,” which meant he “got away with” things that would’ve been considered unacceptable for anyone else.
O’Donnell made it clear that she thinks ‘The Apprentice’ is partly to blame for Trump becoming president.
Rosie O’Donnell on Trump: “I really do blame Mark Burnett and the producers of The Apprentice for selling a lie to the American public, for selling that show as fact when it was fiction, and pretending this mediocre man was somehow a leading businessman in the country. It is the… pic.twitter.com/ixbXy3HFbz
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) July 27, 2026
Before Trump entered politics, many Americans knew of him because of his role on the show—and O’Donnell thinks it gave them a false impression, in a way, even though he acted like a “jerk” on it.
She said, “I really do blame Mark Burnett and the producers of The Apprentice for selling a lie to the American public, for selling that show as fact when it was fiction, and pretending that this man, this mediocre man, was somehow a leading businessman in the country. That he was somehow an equivalent to Warren Buffett. Give me a break.”
O’Donnell proceeded to call this portrayal “the biggest load of crap.” She also acted surprised that some people seem unable to “see him for who he is,” especially because he’s not exactly hiding it.
Meanwhile, she has seen him for who he is for many years now.
O’Donnell and Trump have been involved in an ongoing feud for two decades at this point. It started in 2006 when O’Donnell made fun of him on TV and called him out for his questionable behavior, and he did not take it well. Although it’s been 20 years, it seems like he still hasn’t let it go.
O’Donnell’s opinion of Trump hasn’t really changed either. Many years ago, long before he entered politics, she saw him as a “grifter.”
“It’s all smoke and mirrors with him,” she said on the podcast. “He’s just a grifter, a conman, a snake oil salesman. And if you grew up on Long Island, as I did, or in New York City, you knew this your whole life.”
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