Donald Trump on Celebrity Apprentice Season 12: Firing Debbie Gibson and Dee Snider, Dayana's Underrated Brilliance, and Why Good Television Isn't Always Good Business

Donald Trump said it plainly: "Two people I would hire would be these two, believe me in a second. Sometimes good television isn't necessarily the peop…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

On April 3, 2012, NBC held a press conference call for Celebrity Apprentice Season 12 following the firing of Debbie Gibson and Dee Snider. Host and executive producer Donald Trump joined both contestants on the call. Premier Guide Miami's Daedrian McNaughton was on the line. This piece focuses on Trump's exchanges — on the difficulty of these particular firings, his defense of Dayana Mendoza, and the distinction he drew between what makes great television and what makes a great hire.

Two people I would hire would be these two, believe me in a second. Sometimes good television isn't necessarily the people you'd hire.

On the difficulty of firing Debbie and Dee

Trump was unusually candid about how hard these two firings were. "People think I enjoy firing people. I don't. In the two cases here, that was a hard — to me it was very hard. There have been contestants where I didn't even think about it. It was easy to fire, whether I didn't like them or it was so obvious. This was a very hard one for me, because I like them, and it was also not obvious." He acknowledged that both could have fought differently and possibly survived: "I also knew they could've done things differently and possibly lived to fight another day, but they chose for very good reasons — for nice reasons they chose not to. And I respected that. I understood that when I was doing it."

On Dee Snider specifically — and being too much of a gentleman

Trump singled out Dee Snider's decision not to attack Lou Ferrigno as the pivot point: "I actually wondered why didn't he hit Lou harder? And I think Dee probably realizes — I'm not sure that Dee would've changed because he's a quality person. So I'm not saying he did the wrong thing, but he could've been a winner. And he is a winner." Snider's response: "Thank you." Trump: "Being a gentleman sometimes isn't always a good thing." Snider: "No. It means I'm sitting home watching the show."

On Dayana Mendoza — the most underrated person on the show

Trump was emphatic about Dayana Mendoza's treatment by the women's team: "I happen to think Dayana is probably the most underrated person on the program. I think she's actually very smart, and she can kill you with the eyes and the look and the stare and all. I just don't get it. They just go after her one after another." He added: "She's also very beautiful by the way, in case you haven't noticed." Both Debbie Gibson and Dee Snider agreed — Snider noted that when Dayana joined the men's team, he and Penn Jillette couldn't understand what the women's problem was.

On good television vs. good business

When the conversation turned to whether the boardroom's combative style reflected real business, Trump was direct: "That is true by the way. Sometimes good television isn't necessarily what — these are not necessarily the people that you'd hire. Two people I would hire would be these two, believe me in a second." He added that he had been at Debbie Gibson's Broadway opening twenty years earlier and had always been a fan of Dee Snider's music. "They're two great people. Yes, these are two people that you'd really hire."

On what's coming — and Aubrey O'Day

Asked about the Arsenio Hall–Aubrey O'Day conflict, Trump declined to weigh in on whether Arsenio's frustrations were warranted — but he promised the season was only getting started: "Stay tuned, because what you saw the other night is nothing compared to what happens between them and a couple of others. It is the toughest we've ever had on the Apprentice/Celebrity Apprentice. What happens in the next couple of weeks you won't even believe." He called it "amazing television." Dee Snider's summary of Aubrey: "She's horrible. She's evil." Celebrity Apprentice airs Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern on NBC.

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