O.J. Simpson would have starred on a season of "Celebrity Apprentice" if Donald Trump had his way, the Republican presidential nominee said in a 2008 interview with Howard Stern that has resurfaced in reports this week.
Simpson, the Hall of Fame football player now best known for being acquitted in the double-murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and friend Ron Goldman, is currently serving a sentence in a Nevada jail for armed robbery, kidnapping, and other charges from a 2007 incident in Las Vegas.
Trump told Stern then that he had wanted Simpson to appear on "Celebrity Apprentice," but NBC "went totally crazy," about the suggestion, The Washington Post reported.
"Well you know, in your business, there's a thing called ratings," Trump told Stern in the interview, according to CNN Money, which reported on the comments Wednesday. "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," Trump continued.
When Stern questioned further, Trump said, according to CNN, "I don't want to go into it, but O.J. would have done it. I can't go into the details."
Trump later added: "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?"
Trump said in the interview that Simpson attended his 1993 wedding to Marla Maples, about six months later the football star and broadcaster would be charged with the murders of his ex-wife and friend, the Washington Post reported.
Simpson was acquitted in 1995 for the murders, but a civil court awarded the Brown and Goldman families $25 million in punitive damages in 1997. Simpson will be up for parole in his current case next year, the Post noted.