12 former 'Apprentice' contestants who have spoken out against Donald Trump

In a defamation lawsuit filed in 2017, Zervos accused former President Donald Trump of kissing her against her will in 2007 after she appeared on "The Apprentice" and later groping her in a California hotel.

At a press conference in November 2016, Zervos said that she was bringing a defamation lawsuit against Trump after he called her and other women accusing him of sexual assault "liars" during a 2016 rally and published a series of tweets calling the allegations "totally made up nonsense to steal the election" and "totally phoney [sic] stories."

The defamation suit was delayed in March 2020 after Trump filed an appeal saying a sitting president could not be sued. The New York Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that Zervos could file a defamation suit she originally filed in 2017.

Manigault Newman appeared on the first season of "The Apprentice." She worked in the White House's Office of Public Liaison for 11 months until she was fired by Chief of Staff John Kelly, after which she became an outspoken critic of Trump and wrote a tell-all memoir about her experience.

In an interview with The Hill after the release of her book in August 2018, she called Trump a "racist" who is "trying to undermine our democracy."

"I'm going to continue to blow the whistle about the things I saw," she told the Wall Street Journal in 2018.

Trump responded to her book in a series of tweets, calling her "wacky," "nasty," and "vicious, but not smart."

"When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems," he tweeted in 2018. "I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me — until she got fired!"

Pinkett was the only winner of "The Apprentice" to publicly oppose Trump's presidential campaign in 2016.

"We acknowledge Donald's success as a businessman, and genuinely appreciate the opportunity 'The Apprentice' afforded all of us," Pinkett said at a press conference in April 2016 before the New York primary. "We, however, strongly condemn Donald's campaign of sexism, xenophobia, racism, violence, and hate."

Trump responded in a statement published in CNN calling them "six failing wannabes."

"How quickly they forget," Trump said. "Nobody would know who they are if it weren't for me. They just want to get back into the limelight like they had when they were with Trump. Total dishonesty and disloyalty."

Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen told Vanity Fair in November 2018 that Trump referred to Jackson as a gay slur and did not want him to win the first season of "The Apprentice."

In a February 2019 press statement released during Cohen's congressional testimony, Trump's White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany responded to Cohen's claims by saying he "has lost all credibility" as a "disgraced felon and disbarred lawyer who lied to Congress."

Jackson originally denounced Trump's presidential campaign in 2016 along with Pinkett.

"He doesn't have a lot of folks around him of color in executive management roles on his campaign, and I don't think he has the perspective of a lot of minority concerns," Jackson told Fox Business in April 2016. "He talks about the Blacks and the Hispanics and how he's going to take care of them — what if they want to take care of themselves?"

"While I was on the show, there were a lot of things that happened that were odd and I think would not have happened had I not been an African-American," Allen told Buzzfeed News in 2016.

He said one night, Trump Tower security pulled him aside and said he was trying to enter without authorization. He was the only African-American man on the show.

"I don't know why that happened, but it was one of those instances that kind of remind you that you're an African-American and some people think differently of you," he said.

Dowdell joined Pinkett and Jackson at a press conference in 2016 entitled "Former Apprentices Speak Out: Donald Trump, You're Fired!"

"As someone who participated in the show that arguably paved the way for his presidential ascension, I feel it is my responsibility to speak out," she said, according to PBS. "There has been so much hate and divisiveness in this election cycle that he has particularly fomented. And given the real-world implications of his words, I think we are at a point where we would be irresponsible not to condemn them."

"Trump is passionately and strategically reigniting a dirty and divisive culture soaked in a history of prejudice, fear and hate. It is unpatriotic, anti-American, self-serving, regressive, and downright lazy," Daniels said in a 2016 statement to AP.

At the time in 2016, Trump called Daniels and others speaking out against him "failing wannabes," continuing he "couldn't have been nicer or more respectful" of the contestants.

"They just want to get back into the limelight like they had when they were with Trump. Total dishonesty and disloyalty," he said.

"I'm a minority. I'm an Asian-American minority and I can look everyone in the eyes and say, 'Trump is not a racist,'" Sun told GeekWire in 2016. "However, his supporters were incited by a message of isolation, racism, bigotry. That's why I actually did not vote for him. Not because I think he's racist but his supporters created a message around that, and that goes against everything that I believe in."

Aiken, a former "American Idol" contestant, appeared on Celebrity Apprentice in 2012 and ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2014. Though his bid was unsuccessful, he told Chelsea Handler on Netflix's "Chelsea" in 2016 that even Republicans voted for him because he wasn't a career politician, and that he anticipated the same phenomenon in Trump's campaign.

"He realized he can tap into that anti-establishment fervor that's in the country and can get people to love him," Aiken said on an episode featuring former "Apprentice" contestants. "Those folks who don't like politicians are more motivated to vote. As much as it pains me to say it, I think that Hillary Clinton doesn't inspire people enough to get folks off their a--es to get out there and vote."

In an appearance on the same "Chelsea" episode in 2016, Kardashian told Handler that she "hated every minute" of her time on "Celebrity Apprentice," and only took the gig because her momager Kris made her do it.

"It wasn't for me," she said, adding, "Stressing myself and then dealing with him and about to be fired? I'm like, f*** you, I don't want to do this."

When Handler asked if she supported Trump's campaign, she said "No, I don't think he would make a good president."

Leakes appeared on "Celebrity Apprentice" in 2011, and quit the show.

On the same 2016 "Chelsea" episode featuring former "Apprentice" contestants, Handler asked Leakes if Trump wanted to use her as an "ambassador to Black people" the way he did with Omarosa Manigault Newman.

"They sent me an email and asked me to speak at one of his rallies," Leakes said. "I didn't."

"In all honesty, I have no problem with Trump as a human being," Lampanelli said in 2016 on Handler's Netflix show. "But here's the deal, Trump is effing crazy... In that boardroom, he will say some crazy stuff to the women."

She added that Trump made compliments about the other women's beauty.