Trump: I Never Used 'Terrible, Disgusting' Word

The long-rumored "Trump Tapes," alleged Apprentice outtakes in which the host uses the n-word, are in the news again—and President Trump is insisting that they don't exist. Trump tweeted Monday night that Apprentice executive producer Mark Burnett had called him "to say that there are NO TAPES of the Apprentice where I used such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by Wacky and Deranged Omarosa." He was using his new nickname for former Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman, who says she heard a tape in which Trump used the slur multiple times during filming. "I don't have that word in my vocabulary, and never have," Trump said in his tweet. "She made it up."

Tom Arnold, who has previously claimed to have the tapes, tweeted Monday night that Trump and Burnett are lying, the Hollywood Reporter notes. "Apprentice Employees gave statements about @realdonaldtrump saying multiple 'n' words on the set of @ApprenticeNBC & 100 other horrible things," Arnold said. "I spoke to 2 Executive Producers & Mark Burnett in person. They all said Trump's a liar & there is #TrumpTapes." Trump administration official Lynne Patton issued a statement Monday night saying she spoke to former Apprentice producer Bill Pruitt and he firmly denied ever playing the damning tape to Omarosa, reports Business Insider. The tape "is a figment of her imagination and merely a destructive tool of manipulation applied only when it best serves her interests," she said. (More President Trump stories.)