Comedian Margaret Cho has revealed that President Trump was a big fan of hers and repeatedly asked her to join The Apprentice. Cho, who is well known in comedy and reality television, turned down the offers every time. She admits that back then, she did not fully understand who Trump was.
According to The Daily Beast, Cho shared on The Julia Cunningham Show that she got multiple invitations to join the reality competition. “I was asked several times to be on it, season after season,” she said, adding that producers told her, “Well, Donald Trump really loves you. Please come on.” Cho, 57, never became a contestant on the show, which Trump hosted for 14 seasons between 2004 and 2015.
Her decision to say no was not about politics at the time, but more of a gut feeling. “I just had a bad feeling about it,” she said. She also admitted she did not know much about Trump outside of New York. “I never, you know, had any clue about really who he was. I think that he was just such a regional, kind of, phenomenon at that point. Nobody outside of New York really knew” who he was, she noted.
Cho’s view of Trump has changed completely since he entered politics
Although she never competed, Cho did appear briefly on The Celebrity Apprentice in 2010. She helped her friend Cyndi Lauper during one of the challenges. “My friend Cyndi Lauper was competing one year, and she did something at a diner. So I went, and I helped out,” Cho said. “I was at the diner, so I was part of an episode, but I never actually was a contestant.” She made clear the reason for the invitations: “Donald Trump was a fan.”
Cho’s opinion of Trump has changed sharply since he entered politics. She is now one of his most vocal critics and regularly posts sharp criticism of the president and his supporters on social media. Her dislike for him goes back to at least 2015, when she publicly said, “Trump is abhorrent.” This comes as Trump continues to face pushback on multiple fronts, including how his generals contradicted his claims about US military readiness.
In one notable instance, Cho criticised actor Dean Cain for becoming an “honorary” ICE agent and backing the MAGA movement. In an Instagram video, she asked, “Why would you join ICE and encourage people to join ICE when your ancestors were interned in World War II?” She then told Cain directly, “You’re Japanese,” and added, “You’ll never be white.”
Her opposition to Trump was well known enough that his former fixer, Michael Cohen, contacted her in 2016. “At the beginning of the campaign in 2016, Michael Cohen somehow got my email and was really begging me to become part of the campaign,” Cho recalled.
Trump has also been making headlines internationally, including his heated clash with UK Prime Minister Starmer. Her response was immediate. “And I’m like, that’s insane. I’m a lifelong Democrat. Why would I?” she said. Cho identifies as a lifelong Democrat, and her earlier refusals of The Apprentice were not politically motivated, even though her views on Trump have since become very clear.
Published: Mar 6, 2026 01:45 pm