Donald Trump

Former ‘Apprentice' Contestant Volunteers for Trump More Than a Decade After Being Fired by Him

A South Jersey man who was fired by Donald Trump on his hit NBC show “The Apprentice” is now working for the presidential candidate more than a decade later.

“I look at the Apprentice experience as a fraternity,” said Brian McDowell, a North Wildwood real estate broker.

McDowell was a contestant on season 3 of the Apprentice in 2005 but was fired by Trump in week 2 of the show. Eleven years later, McDowell is now volunteering for Trump in his bid for the White House.

“A lot of my friends say you know, ‘how could you actually support Donald Trump after being fired on the Apprentice?’” McDowell said. “I’m all about being involved in a campaign where I feel it matters. And I think that this campaign with Donald Trump matters. I look at Donald Trump and I compare him to Dwight Eisenhower. I compare him to Roosevelt. I compare him to people who built this country.”

McDowell recently spent time in Iowa in the days leading up to the state’s Republican caucus, helping to staff a phone bank. He also reunited with fellow Apprentice contestant Tana Goertz who was working in Iowa as an official campaign chairperson.

“Literally within the first ten minutes of being there with Tana it was like being back on the Apprentice,” he said. “It was like being thrown right back into a task.”

McDowell went to Nevada for the Republican caucus as well. When no planes were seemingly available to fly Trump’s son to a campaign event, McDowell says his Apprentice connections with a different contestant from the same season helped him track down a jet.

“When I see adversity or I see a problem I go right into the mode of fixing that problem which is ultimately I think what all the Apprentices that were casted do,” McDowell said.

McDowell told NBC10 he’s paid for all of his own travel expenses so far which has totaled around $2,000.

“Donald is frugal and so is Brian McDowell,” he said.

McDowell is considering taking a campaign trip to Florida next but first wants to see how Trump does on Super Tuesday.

“I would be surprised if it’s not a sweep,” he said.

McDowell says he will continue to support Trump, even if he doesn’t always agree with what he says. 

“I don’t like everything Donald Trump says and I don’t like everything Donald Trump does,” McDowell said. “I didn’t like the fact that I was fired on the Apprentice. But I’m a realist.”
 

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