(AP)
By Sandy Fitzgerald
NEWSMAX
President Donald Trump came back at his “Apprentice” successor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Twitter early Friday morning, slamming his performance both as the governor of California and as his replacement on the NBC reality show.
Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger did a really bad job as Governor of California and even worse on the Apprentice…but at least he tried hard!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2017
Friday’s tweet is the latest salvo against “The Terminator” star and came a day after Trump used parts of his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast to joke about Schwarzenegger and his ratings, and calling out producer Mark Burnett, who had introduced him before his speech.
“When I ran for president, I had to leave [“The “Apprentice”], Trump said. “And they hired a big, big movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger to take my place, and we know how that turned out,” he said, laughing.
“The ratings went right now the tubes, it’s been a total disaster. And Mark [Burnett] will never, ever bet against Trump again. I want to just pray for Arnold if we can — for those ratings.”
Friday’s tweet met with laughter from MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough.
“Trump is up tweeting this morning,” said Scarborough, laughing too hard to finish reading the tweet before taking a commercial break. “Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger really did a bad job as — I can’t even read it.”
Trump has attacked the action movie star before over his former show’s ratings, but this time, the former governor hit back with a tweet of his own, likely spurring Trump’s early morning counterpunch.
“Hey Donald, I have a great idea: Why don’t we switch jobs?” Schwarzenegger suggested in a video. “You take over TV because you’re such an expert in ratings, and I take over your job, so then people can finally sleep comfortably again.”
Trump opened Friday’s series of tweets with not only his latest attack on Schwarzenegger, but also tweets about his telephone call with Australia, a comment on “professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters,” a tweet about Iran, and a statement on his Friday meetings with the nation’s business leaders.