One Apprentice alum and attorney has joined the campaign for Donald Trump as some alumni of the reality show have publicly endorsed Kamala Harris ahead of Tuesday’s presidential election.
Erin Elmore appeared on season three of NBC’s The Apprentice in 2006 and was ‘fired’ after nine episodes, but she says the experience was immeasurable in the impact both it and Trump have had on her career.
Elmore is one of the 11 Apprentice contestants who recently penned a public letter in support of former President Trump’s re-election bid after another cohort publicly endorsed Vice President Harris.
Their letter read, ‘it is disappointing and shameful that these contestants would use the platform that Donald Trump gave them to attack him in this manner. Is this the thanks he gets for literally changing the trajectory of our lives?’
A letter obtained by Politico from six people formerly involved with The Apprentice claimed that former President Trump is a ‘divisive, self-interested, and erratic leader with a fragile ego.’
Elmore wholeheartedly disagrees with the letter’s characterization, claiming in an interview with Fox News Digital that ‘every bit of success I have in this life and everything that I’m doing is because of Donald Trump.’
She joined the show in 2006 as a 26-year-old who had recently graduated law school and made it nearly all the way through season 3.
‘Yes, I heard the words, ‘you’re fired.’ But I was rehired on the campaign many, many years later,’ said Elmore in an interview with Fox News Digital. ‘But before we get into that, you know, Donald Trump was someone that saw a young person who was ambitious; he gave me every opportunity in the world. After I left the show, he asked me, ‘what do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘I want to get into journalism.’ And he wrote me a letter of recommendation, handed me a folio with people that I could contact. He said, This is on you. This is your job to do it.’
‘And he wrote me a letter of recommendation, handed me a folio with people that I could contact. He said, ‘This is on you. This is your job to do it.’
— Erin Elmore
Elmore landed a job in news media after her time on the show in Jacksonville, Florida before going on to work at QVC. She says everything changed when Donald Trump first went down that escalator in 2015 and threw his hat in the ring for commander-in-chief.
‘I was there for about ten years and I was very comfortable,’ said Elmore to Fox News Digital. ‘I had gotten married. I had had a child. And by the way, in both of those monumental situations in my life, who did I get surprise phone calls from Donald Trump saying, ‘congratulations on your wedding. I heard you had a beautiful son. Congratulations.’ So our paths were always connected.’
‘But when he came down that golden escalator and said he was running for president, I called his personal assistant that I kept in touch with over those ten years. I said, ‘Rona, I am quitting my job. I have a six-month-old baby at home. I am going to dedicate my life to getting this man elected.’
Erin Elmore served as a deputy press secretary in 2016 for the RNC and as a Trump surrogate in the same cycle. She has stepped up again in 2024 for re-election efforts as part of the Women for Trump bus tour visiting swing states with figures like Lara Trump.
She says that she finds it ‘sad’ that other alumni from the Apprentice haven’t seen the character she sees in former president Trump.
‘Not only were you exposed to the American platform, you had everyone in America watching you,’ said Elmore to Fox News Digital. ‘But Donald Trump gave us the opportunity to meet with titans of industry, business leaders, CEOs–the networking opportunities were absolutely to the moon.’
‘And I just don’t know how anyone could possibly say that they weren’t afforded every opportunity in the world. Yes, I approached Donald Trump after I was on the show and I said, ‘Would you write me a letter of recommendation? Would you help me with some job opportunities?’ But you know what? That’s how the world works. We have to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps and make ourselves successful. And the fact that these people can’t really see what the show has done for them is just sad and it speaks more about them than it does about us,’ added Elmore.
As for what’s in store after next week’s presidential election, Elmore says she plans to first focus on her family, including her son’s student council campaign.
‘We’re all scared. We’re all emotional. But to me, the most important thing is being a good wife and a mother,’ said Elmore. ‘And I’ve been in this game a long time and I know so many people want so many amazing things. I think what I’m going to do is I’m going to manage my son’s student council campaign, because I know exactly what to do in politics.’