Arnold Schwarzenegger quits The Celebrity Apprentice, blames Donald Trump for low ratings

US actor and politician, Arnold Schwarzenegger has 'terminated' his ties with "The New Celebrity Apprentice."   In a new statement, the former California governor said he will not be returning to host the reality program, which was once hosted for a longtime by by now US President, Donald Trump. He said:

"I loved every second of working with NBC and Mark Burnett. Everyone from the celebrities to the crew to the marketing department was a straight 10, and I would absolutely work with all of them again on a show that doesn't have this baggage".

The "baggage"Schwarzenegger refers to, is the constant taunting he received from Donald Trump, who frequently as President of the United States – criticized Schwarzenegger and The New Celebrity Apprentice's lagging ratings on Twitter.

On February 3rd,Trump tweeted, "Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger did a really bad job as Governor of California and even worse on the Apprentice ... but at least he tried hard!"

In an interview with Empire, Schwarzenegger blamed Trump's interference and badmouthing (as a producer on the series) for the ratings dive. He said:

"It's not about the show, because everyone I ran into came up to me and said 'I love the show. .. but I turned it off because as soon as I read Trump's name, I'm outta there". "When people found out that Trump was still involved as executive producer and was still receiving money from the show, then half the people started boycotting it."

Before he quit the show, he told Empire magazine that even if he got invited back to the reality show, he wouldn't accept . He said:

"With Trump being involved in the show people have a bad taste and don't want to participate as a spectator or as a sponsor or in any other way support the show," he said. "It's a very divisive period now and I think this show got caught up in all that division."

Trump had repeatedly taunted Schwarzenegger for the show’s drop in ratings, going so far as to ask for prayers for him during the National Prayer Breakfast:

“They hired a big, big movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to take my place. And we know how that turned out. The ratings went down the tubes,” Trump said. “I want to just pray for Arnold, if we can, for those ratings.”

The Feb. 13 season finale of “Celebrity Apprentice” attracted 3.45 million live viewers, a steep drop from the 6.1 million who tuned in for Trump’s last season finale on the show in 2015