Howard Stern Says Trump Ran for President as ‘Gimmick’ to Keep The Apprentice On the Air

Howard Stern sat down with Stephen Colbert Tuesday night to talk about his new book and, of course, his former radio show guest Donald Trump.

Stern pointed out that he thought Trump was in the “top five” of guests for his show of all time mainly because he said whatever popped into his head, including talking about how his daughter is “the most attractive woman he ever met.”

Stern — who admitted he was a Hillary Clinton supporter — also had a novel theory for why he thought Trump really ran for president and it was not to actually win the White House.

Instead, Stern said he would “bet the farm” it was all a great big gimmick to keep The Apprentice on the air. He also noted Trump had tried that very same tactic before.

Here is what he said:

“Yeah. And I firmly believed that Donald did not want to run for president. I don’t think it was serious. I don’t think he wanted to be the president. I knew him. He had a great life at Mar-a-Lago. He was running around town. He played golf. He had a good time. And I remember— and I say this— the first time he said, ‘I might run for president,’ he put out his first book. And I know some of the people involved in this. And they said, ‘Pretend like you’re running for president, and you’ll sell a lot of books.’ And he did it, and it worked. Second book he put out, it was again, like, four years later, he said, ‘I might run for president. And, again, he said, ‘Oh, I’m selling books, and it helps sell books. So what happened this time? He’s on The Apprentice. The ratings were going down. And NBC was balking at giving him a raise. So what did he say? ‘I’ll run for president, I’ll get a lot of press.’ And I really believe that Donald— this was a gimmick to get NBC to raise up his salary and to keep The Apprentice on.”

Watch above, via CBS

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com