Speaking with radio show host Howard Stern in 2004, Donald Trump joked about Nicole Simpson, the murdered wife of O.J. Simpson, who was killed in 1994, saying that when she met Trump at a restaurant with her husband, she was “rough,” laughing, “so, he decided to kill her.” In 2008, he added, “Now she’d be kissing my ass. Now I’m the biggest star on television, she’ll kiss my ass.”
Trump said, “I’m sitting having dinner and O.J. came up to me — I was sitting with very important people, big bankers, nobody that you know, big, big bankers, and we were sitting there, there were six of us, and O.J. came up. And he was talking to us for about three minutes, and Nicole, was with her mother I think, and she came over, and she started screaming at him, ‘get over to the table, what the hell are you—’ she was rough, in all fairness.”
“So, he decided obviously to kill her,” he laughed.
Stern opined: “It might have been right at the [restaurant] that he decided it.”
Trump, fully inflated, now: “She was very tough. She came over and she really embarrassed him, she was screaming at him. She didn’t care. And that was before The Apprentice so she didn’t give a damn about me. Now she’d be kissing my ass. Now I’m the biggest star on television, she’ll kiss my ass.”
Stern, joking, “You would never kill one of your ex-wives, would you?”
Trump, laughing, “Uhh, I could think about it.”
Stern: “It would almost be that absurd to think that O.J. killed his ex-wife. It would be that absurd to think you killed your ex-wife. That’s what I read in the paper today. In other words, it was out of character it seemed for O.J. Nice O.J.”
Trump, correcting Stern: “Other than all of the beatings that were called into the police station and later retracted. There were a number of them, Howard. Like about six times … You know she did call six times and screamed: ‘help, help, help he’s beating me up, he’s beating me up’ and the next day they dropped the charges. That’s not totally normal. That’s not Fred and Mary Trump, do we agree?”
Four years later, Trump bragged to Stern in July 2008 that he had wanted to bring O.J. Simpson on as a contestant on Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice to gin up ratings, but NBC balked. In April 2008 NBC had stated, “NBC representatives have never considered O.J. Simpson for the next season of ‘The Apprentice,’ nor will.”
Trump told Stern, “I do have to tell you about O.J. and The Apprentice. NBC went totally crazy when I wanted to put O.J. on The Apprentice.” He admitted he had played golf with O.J. Simpson before the murder trial but stopped when he “realized he killed his wife.”
Stern: “Why would you put him on The Apprentice?”
Trump: “Well, you know, in your business, there’s a thing called ratings. And, you know you can come up with a cure for cancer — I found out a lot about your business — because, hey, I’m the biggest star. I’m now the biggest star. So I know that if you come up with a cure for cancer, and if you put it on, and if it doesn’t get ratings, they will not broadcast it. So, you come with a cure for a disease, no good. Now, I know this if I put O.J. on huge ratings. Oh, forget it, 35 million people.”
Stern: “So did O.J. call you and … “
Trump: “I don’t want to go into it, but O.J. would have done it. I can’t go into the details.”
“That was before The Apprentice so she didn’t give a damn about me. Now she’d be kissing my ass. Now I’m the biggest star on television, she’ll kiss my ass.”
Donald Trump, regarding Nicole Simpson, murdered 10 years before
Stern asked if Trump had spoken to Simpson about the show, but Trump evaded the question, answering, “I hadn’t spoken to him in years, I don’t like people that kill their wives. Does that make sense? Does that make me a disloyal person?”
In May of 2008, Trump told Extra, “Let’s say that NBC, when I mentioned O.J. Simpson, had a heart attack. They weren’t thrilled. I’m not saying I would have cast him, either, but it was certainly somebody that would be interesting.”