Late Monday, Fox clarified comments she made about Ivanka Trump when speaking about her experience filming a 2015 episode of The Celebrity Apprentice. In a pair of tweets, Fox said that she thought Ivanka Trump was complimenting her when Trump referred to her as well-spoken, even though people on Twitter were offended by Trump’s choice of words.
“I NEVER SAID @IvankaTrump was a racist,” Fox tweeted on Monday. “I said she was complimenting us!”
“I was asked a question and as I said [I] felt she was complimenting us but Twitter folks weren’t happy w her choice of words! CLEAR??” Fox added in a subsequent tweet.
In an episode of the E! show For Real: The Story of Reality TV, which aired Friday, Fox told host Andy Cohen that Ivanka Trump slighted her while filming an episode of The Celebrity Apprentice.
“I’ll never forget that when I did Celebrity Apprentice and Ivanka Trump, she said, ‘Wow, you speak very well,’” she said.
Fox explained that she didn’t think Ivanka Trump was aware that her remark was insulting.
“No, Andy. I hate to say it,” she said. “I don’t think she knew at the time that she was insulting us. I really think that she thought she was complimenting us. That it was like, ‘Oh, wow, you guys are intelligent.’”
Cohen added: “I don’t think she knows now.”
Fox remembered that the incident trended on Twitter after the episode aired due to Ivanka Trump’s remarks. In January 2015, a slew of users criticized Ivanka Trump for describing Fox as “articulate.” @AubreyGrammer wrote, “@IvankaTrump Would u call Geraldo ‘articulate’? Still trippin’ that u called ANY grown woman articulate!”
Despite Fox saying that Ivanka Trump didn’t mean any harm, Twitter users renewed their criticisms of the former president’s daughter on Saturday after Fox suggested the comment could be insulting. Some people online compared Ivanka’s conduct to her father’s allegedly racist behavior.
American media personality Perez Hilton tweeted, “The racism runs in the family!”
“Ivanka Trump made a racist comment on Celebrity Apprentice. Shocking? not really,” tweeted @serenapatriot.
“Why doesn’t [it] surprise me? ‘Like father, like daughter,’” tweeted @BossLadyClash.
@terryhoule tweeted, “Ivanka Trump called out for racist comment on ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ @IvankaTrump SHAME ON YOU.”
“Well, @ivankatrump, we are not surprised,” tweeted @IAmJoeTrudeau.
Newsweek reached out to Trump representatives for comment. This story will be updated with any response.
In The Method to the Madness: Donald Trump’s Ascent as Told By Those Who Were Hired, Fired, Inspired—and Inaugurated, a book by Allen Salkin and Aaron Short, The Apprentice co-producer Bill Pruitt claimed that Trump questioned whether viewers would “buy” a Black contestant winning the first season of the reality show.
The 2004 debut season had two finalists: Kwame Jackson, a Black Goldman Sachs investment manager who graduated from Harvard Business School, and Bill Rancic, a Croatian-American entrepreneur who owned a Chicago cigar company.
Pruitt said that Trump huddled with producers and other judges when it came time to pick a winner and asked, “But will America buy a n***er winning?”
Rancic was named the winner in season 1.
Watch Vivica A. Fox’s interview on E! below:
Updated 05/11/2021, 11:30 a.m. ET: This story and headline have been updated to reflect Fox’s tweets denying that she called Ivanka Trump a racist.
