Who Is Lil Jon? Donald Trump Says He Doesn't Know Rapper, Reportedly Called Him 'Uncle Tom' on 'Celebrity Apprentice'

Rapper Lil Jon appeared on President Donald Trump's reality TV show spinoff Celebrity Apprentice back in 2013. The president denied knowing him while responding to questions at a White House conference on Wednesday.

During the 90-minute presser, a reporter began to ask Trump about the many times he'd been accused of racism in the past and reminded Trump of Jon, who previously said Trump called him the racial slur "Uncle Tom" while he was a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice.

Trump, obviously irritated by the line of questioning, responded: "I don't know who Lil Jon is."

The reporter explained Jon was on his NBC reality show, to which Trump replied, "Oh he was?" before denying ever using racial slurs.

"I would never do that. I don't use racist remarks. And you know what? If I did, you people would—you would have known about it. I've been hearing there are tapes for years and years, 'There are tapes.' Number one, I never worried about it because I never did it. I have never used racist remarks. I have never used racist remarks," Trump said.

Here's Trump saying that he doesn't know who Lil Jon is even though he was on Celebrity Apprentice. pic.twitter.com/EcJ3awjxbt

— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) November 7, 2018

Jon was a contestant on the 13th season of The Apprentice's celebrity spinoff dubbed All-Star Celebrity Apprentice. Several show producers, including three staffers of the show, alleged they heard Trump call Jon "Uncle Tom" during an episode of the show in which Jon was tasked with promoting hair-care products, The Daily Beast reported in 2016.

Jon wore an Uncle Sam costume to help advertise the "beautiful" hair products. Staffers told The Daily Beast a confused Trump saw Jon in the outfit and started blurting out, "Look, he's Uncle Tom."

Trump appeared to be unaware of the history of the racial slur, which is used to demean a black man who behaves submissively towards white people.

Hmmmm. Can someone at the WH show #45 this picture of @LilJon. It might help jar his memory. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/EjXuJH03Br

— Omarosa (@OMAROSA) November 7, 2018

Jon addressed the issue on Twitter ahead of the presidential election in 2016. "When this 'Uncle Tom' incident happened on Celebrity Apprentice in the boardroom several of my castmates and I addressed Mr. Trump immediately when we heard the comment," Jon wrote. "I can't say if he knew what he was actually saying or not but he did stop using that term once we explained it's offensiveness."

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Michigan native, Janice Williams is a graduate of Oakland University where she studied journalism and communication. Upon relocating to New ... Read more

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