Ex Advisor Spills Trump Took His Apprentice One-Liner To Heart In Oval Office

Long before he was the President of the United States, Donald Trump was the host of the hit series "The Apprentice." On the show, he was known for his catchphrase, "You're fired." According to a former national security official, he used that one-liner during his presidency, too — and it's got her fearing his potential return to the White House.

Olivia Troye was a White House national security official under the Trump administration. Despite being a Republican, Troye took to the Democratic National Convention stage last week to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. According to her, choosing to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate wasn't easy, but she confidently called the choice "the right one." Much of Troye's decision surely comes from her unique insider knowledge of the Trump administration. While talking to USA Today, she recalled witnessing Trump's difficult attitude toward intelligence officials. According to her, Trump's desire to disregard or attempt to delegitimize truths he didn't like stretched far beyond his past rigged election claims. If someone told him something he didn't like, Troye claims he was quick to recall his old catchphrase. "Whenever somebody would give a factual briefing with real intelligence that really mattered, especially when it came to foreign adversaries ... he would discredit that person," Troye explained. According to her, "I saw bosses get fired, long-time mentors of mine, who were worrying about what Russia was doing, about what foreign interference was happening, and he just didn't want to hear it."

It's easy to see why Olivia Troye's memories of the first Trump administration have her feeling concerned about another. And, watching Donald Trump run for election again is already giving her déjà vu. While it's been proven that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Trump famously asserted that the election was "rigged" and attempted to overturn it. Troye told USA Today, "I remember the 2020 playbook very well. He's making the same references again." She noted that repeated accusations of false election fraud could have severe consequences for the U.S. With her focus on national security, Troye knows what these consequences are. 

Troye resigned from her position after the attack on the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. The infamous riots were an attempt by citizens, most of whom were Trump supporters, to overturn the election. Michael Premo, whose documentary, "Homegrown" is about the riots, told The Guardian, "I think January 6th was just the warm-up," adding, "This November, we're going to see an even more frantic and desperate attempt to attack every level of the electoral system." At the first presidential debate of 2024 back in June, CNN debate moderator Dana Bash asked Trump if he would accept the results of the election. "If it's a fair and legal and good election, absolutely," he said, per NBC. Only time will tell, however, if this is true.