Donald Trump Wanted Ivanka to Take His Role on ‘The Apprentice’

When Donald Trump was leaving behind his boardroom chair as the star of “The Apprentice,” the former television star had wanted Ivanka to step in.

“I said, ‘The best person to hire would be Ivanka Trump,’” Donald Trump says. “I didn’t press it. But I felt Ivanka would have been by far the best person you could hire.”

Trump shared this idea in his new book about his years in reality television “Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass,” written by Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh.

DALLAS, TX – SEPTEMBER 14: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the American Airlines Center on September 14, 2015 in Dallas, Texas. More than 20,000 tickets have been distributed for the event. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

The book details how Trump played the role as the mogul on TV and how it shaped his image to get him into the White House.

When “The Apprentice” premiered in January 2004, it became an overnight sensation, reaching more than 20 million viewers an episode in its first season. More importantly, the series, created by Mark Burnett, turned Trump into a beloved national figure.

WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 25: U.S. President Donald Trump holds a joint news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the Rose Garden at the White House July 25, 2017 in Washington, DC. Trump began the news conference by announcing that Senate Republicans had passed a procedural vote on repealing Obamacare. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Trump appeared as a savvy businessman who judged contestants with his competitive jobs in the hopes to win a role within his company.

Eventually, the show added more star power in the form of contestants in “The Celebrity Apprentice,” which had everyone from Joan Rivers to Piers Morgan competing for Trump’s approval in tasks for charity.

Trump starred in 14 seasons of “The Apprentice” and its spinoff before exiting reality TV, and he was also credited as the series’ executive producer.

“NBC didn’t like it, because it became like a family thing,” Trump says in the book about his proposal to have Ivanka replace him. “But I said, ‘There’s nobody you’re going to hire that will come even close to Ivanka.’ They said, ‘Huh…’ And then they came back with Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

Schwarzenegger replaced Trump as host of “The New Celebrity Apprentice,” which premiered in January 2017, before Trump’s inauguration, and was canceled after one season due to lackluster ratings.

US President Donald Trump and Senior Advisor to President Trump, Ivanka Trump participate in the "White House Summit on Human Trafficking: The 20th Anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000" event in the East Room of the White House on January 31, 2020 in Washington, DC — WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 31: US President Donald Trump and Senior Advisor to President Trump, Ivanka Trump participate in the “White House Summit on Human Trafficking: The 20th Anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000” event in the East Room of the White House on January 31, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)

As part of Trump’s pitch for an Ivanka version of “The Apprentice,” Eric and Don Trump Jr. would have joined their sister on TV as boardroom advisers.

“It was going to be the three of us,” Eric Trump says in the book. “There were talks for a little while about it.”

NBC cut ties with Donald Trump when he ran for president and immediately made derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants in July 2015.

Trump’s grown-up children joined him on the campaign trail. “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 says in the book. “I’m not sure the two could have worked in tandem.”

“Apprentice in Wonderland” will be published on June 18 by HarperCollins.