Margaret Cho had 'bad feeling' about Trump's The Apprentice after he pursued her for the cast

Comedy legend Margaret Cho has recalled Trump's 'odd' insistence in having her join the cast of The Apprentice in an exclusive interview with The Daily Mail.

Years before entering politics, the future president was the host of The Apprentice, a reality show which saw a group of ambitious businessmen and women compete for a position at his company. 

But Trump, 79, was apparently quite keen on having Cho, 57, join the cast and sought her out over the course of several years. 

'It was just odd, because he really wouldn't let up over a couple of years, he really wanted me to do it,' she told The Daily Mail at the 2026 Queerties, where she was receiving the Icon Award. 

Cho was dissuaded from being a cast member after she appeared on an actual episode to support her friend, singer Cyndi Lauper, who was competing on The Celebrity Apprentice. 

'And I just was like, I have bad feeling. I had gone on briefly for when my friend Cyndi Lauper had done The Apprentice,' she said. 

'And so I went to visit her challenge in her diners, and it was just very stressful. I didn't want to put myself in that position. I had no idea who he was. 

'I never really spent that much time in New York, and he's such a New York kind of person. Everybody knew, but I didn't really know.'

The Daily Mail has contacted The White House for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

Cho first revealed The Apprentice anecdote during a recent appearance on The Julia Cunningham Show. 

'I was asked several times to be on it, season after season, and they kept saying, "Well, Donald Trump really loves you. Please come on,"' she said. 

'I just had a bad feeling about it, because I did go on one of the challenges cause my friend Cyndi Lauper was competing one year, and so she did something at a diner, so I went and I helped out. 

'I was at the diner, and so I was part of an episode, but I never actually was a contestant, but I was asked several times because Donald Trump was a fan,' she said. 

The lifelong Democrat was flummoxed when she was also asked to support Trump's campaign back 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, and I'm like, "That's insane. I'm a lifelong Democrat."

'Why would I back somebody that... I didn't know anything about him also, because I'm not a New Yorker. I never 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, but I just like, "Why would you ask me that?"' 

At the Queerties, Cho rallied against Trump and his administration.

'I’m so honored to be here with all of you, I love the Queerties. I’m just proud that we have an award ceremony to acknowledge what we do — we make each other laugh, we make each other survive this terrible administration, we make each other want to revolt even harder,' she said, according to The Wrap. 

Cho, who is now on tour, rose to fame after she starred and created the short-lived ABC sitcom All-American Girl 

She is best known for her stand-up comedy routines, oftentimes through critiques of social and political issues and problems, especially regarding race and sexuality.

Cho has been a consistent supporter of LGBT rights, and has won awards for her humanitarian efforts on behalf of women, Asian Americans, and the LGBT community.

In 2012, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her guest starring role as Dictator Kim Jong-il on 30 Rock.