Former contestants of The Apprentice, ex‑national security adviser John Bolton, ex‑FTC commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and ex‑Trump Organization executive Barbara Res have opened up about their personal encounters with Donald Trump, revealing how his larger‑than‑life persona, willingness to fire staff at a moment’s notice and reliance on mythmaking have left a lasting imprint on both their careers and the wider political landscape.
The Apprentice Lens: Gene Folkes on Trump’s Charisma and the Illusion of Empathy
Gene Folkes, 62, a former air force recruiter turned investment banker who appeared on season 10 of The Apprentice in 2010, recalled the first meeting with Trump on Wall Street: “You can really get drawn into all things Donald.” He described the early morning wardrobe hand‑over at 3.30 am, the rapid shift from introductions to the first task, and the unsettling boardroom moment when Trump asked the contestants whether they thought the women were attractive. “I did not feel anger. I felt relief. At that point you realise you’re playing in a system that’s rigged.” He later told NBC that he refused to take down a blog post criticising Trump’s potential presidential run, despite pressure from the network.
In a brief, punchy reflection, Folkes noted that the experience taught him that “the emperor has no clothes” and that genuine leadership requires empathy for ordinary citizens, a quality he said was absent from his former mentor.
Folkes, who now runs the technology consulting firm OshunX and hosts the podcast Folkes Unfettered, said that while Trump exuded charisma and charm, the lack of genuine empathy meant he could not model himself after the businessman‑turned‑politician. He added that the show’s format, with its ever‑changing rules, mirrored a political arena where the person in power controls the narrative and the outcome.
Inside the White House: John Bolton’s Turbulent Tenure and the Erosion of Institutional Discipline
John Bolton, 77, the former national security adviser who served from 2018 to 2019, described his resignation as the culmination of “an accumulation of factors” rather than a single incident. He kept a draft resignation letter in both his office drawer and his home, and on 9 September 2019 told Trump, “Well, look, if you feel that way, I’ll resign,” before the president left the Oval Office for a speech. The next morning he handed the letter to his secretary, who was instructed to pass it to Trump’s own secretary, and prepared to leave the “blast zone.” A missed tweet about his resignation prompted Trump to “go through the roof,” and Bolton’s Twitter account was temporarily closed.
In a succinct statement, Bolton admitted, “Trump isn’t disciplined by anything, and so most of what I did was struggle to keep the train on the track.” He explained that long‑range planning was impossible, that the president often ordered military action only to change his mind mid‑flight, and that the national security council’s policy‑making process was routinely bypassed in favour of direct access to the president.
Bolton also recalled a specific episode in which the United States shot down an Iranian drone over the Persian Gulf; the president ordered a retaliation, but as aircraft were already in the air he reversed the decision, leaving officials questioning the purpose of the mission and the value of institutional processes.
A Commissioner’s Stand: Rebecca Kelly Slaughter’s Fight Against Political Dismissal
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, 45, a Democrat appointed to the Federal Trade Commission by Trump in 2018, described receiving an email titled “Message from the president” while volunteering at her daughter’s school drama club. “I was at the school drama club when I had an email from somebody I had never heard of before. ‘Message from the president.’ I thought, well, that can’t be good,” she recalled. The email, filled with legal citations but not written by the president, announced her immediate termination, prompting her to step outside the gymnasium to make a hastily organised press conference under floodlights.
She expressed deep concern for the health of governmental institutions: “I feel a lot of anger on behalf of institutions of government, of public servants throughout the government.” Although she did not feel personal animus toward Trump, she argued that his actions threatened the independence of agencies that safeguard consumer prices, privacy and competition.
Slaughter’s legal challenge culminated in the Supreme Court case Trump v Slaughter, which upheld the president’s at‑will power to remove commissioners, overturning a 91‑year‑old precedent. She noted that even after her dismissal, the president did not fire her colleague Alvaro Bedoya or herself immediately, creating a period of uncertainty from mid‑January to mid‑March 2025.
From the Boardroom to the Campaign Trail: Barbara Res’s Long‑Term View of Trump’s Management Style
Barbara Res, 76, who worked for the Trump Organization from 1978 until 2016, recounted meeting Trump in 1978 while assisting with the Grand Hyatt hotel construction, and later being tasked with leading the construction of Trump Tower. She described how Trump would “scream at” anyone who disagreed with him, yet also how he could be “pretty funny” in private, telling jokes and complimenting Ivana’s outfits to keep him in a good mood. “He didn’t have the courage to be the one to fire people. He didn’t want to face people,” she said, recalling instances where he insisted on re‑hiring a poor‑performing apartment manager after three attempts, only to blame others for the failure.
Res explained that Trump’s management style relied on shifting blame rather than on constructive feedback, noting that “you couldn’t just say that [a proposed action] was wrong or illegal; he couldn’t handle it, so we found ways of working around it – making him think a substitute idea was his own.” She also highlighted the 2016 op‑ed she wrote, which triggered a hostile reaction from Trump at rallies and on Twitter, including the publishing of private emails that she claimed were misrepresented.
Res’s reflections underscored a broader pattern: Trump’s reluctance to confront individuals directly, his reliance on surrogates to absorb criticism, and his tendency to fire staff as a means of asserting control, a habit that persisted from the boardroom into his presidency.
Why it Matters
The personal testimonies of Folkes, Bolton, Slaughter and Res illustrate how Trump’s personality‑driven leadership, characterised by rapid dismissal, mythic self‑presentation and a disregard for institutional norms, has reshaped political culture and the functioning of public institutions. Their experiences suggest that the erosion of empathy and procedural discipline, first evident on a reality‑TV set, has had real‑world consequences for policy making, agency independence and the public’s trust in democratic processes, making their insights crucial for understanding the current political climate and its future trajectory.
