A decade ago, when Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump was more well-known for telling people they were fired than for his controversial views on immigration and his ability to rile up a crowd, the business mogul was focused on thinking of ways to bring more spice to his popular reality show, "The Apprentice."
Among the ideas, Trump considered pitting white contestants against black contestants for a season.
In an article published by Buzzfeed Thursday, McKay Coppins detailed the controversy surrounding the idea. It was first proposed by Trump in 2005 during a broadcast of his short-lived radio show.
"To be honest, I wasn't particularly happy with the most recent season," he said, according to a report published by Entertainment Weekly on July 12, 2005.
To remedy the situation, he was contemplating "an idea that is fairly controversial – creating a team of successful African-Americans versus a team of successful whites. Whether people like that idea or not, it is somewhat reflective of our very vicious world."
"Will 'The Apprentice' become a battle of the races?" asked The Today Show in an article published in July 2005.
The idea was heavily covered at the time, according to Buzzfeed News, although the response was mostly negative.
Speaking with the news website, Tara Dowdell, a black woman who appeared on season 3 of "The Apprentice," said the gimmick was, at best, "a huge blind spot" and, at worst, an indication of how far Trump would go to promote himself.
"He has the audacity to say he's a uniter when he proposed 'Apprentice: The Race War?'" she said.
The idea never made its way to the small screen.
Trump, the Republican presumptive nominee for president, has been criticized for his outspoken views on people of various races. He implied most Mexicans were criminals and rapists in 2015 while announcing his bid for the GOP nomination. He has also been criticized for sharing erroneous facts and figures on social media regarding crime and race.
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