Donald Trump racial-slur allegations resurface in new book 'The Method to the Madness'

It’s the allegation that won’t die. And now a new book is adding more context – and more logs to the fire.

In “The Method to the Madness: Donald Trump's Ascent as Told by Those Who Were Hired, Fired, Inspired – and Inaugurated,” out Tuesday, authors and journalists Allen Salkin and Aaron Short resurrect the allegation that President Trump openly used a racial slur on the set of his long-running reality TV show “The Apprentice."

In the book, the story of Trump’s ascendancy to the White House is told as an oral history through direct quotes from named sources speaking on the record. One chapter immediately jumps out: It’s titled “The N-Word.”

Allegations have long circulated that Trump used the racial slur behind the scenes on “The Apprentice.” The existence of audio recordings catching him in the act have been relentlessly teased, though none has surfaced.

Trump has denied using the word or the existence of any such tapes on Twitter in the past. In a 2018 interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, when asked if Trump had ever uttered the word, said, "I can’t guarantee anything."

In “The Method to the Madness,” Bill Pruitt, co-producer of Season One of “The Apprentice,” which aired on NBC in 2004, offers his recollection of the alleged incident.

The season had come down to two finalists: Kwame Jackson, a Harvard Business School graduate and former investment manager at Goldman Sachs; and Bill Rancic, owner of a Chicago cigar business. Jackson was black; Rancic was white.

There was a pre-taping huddle to discuss the finalists. Present was Carolyn Kepcher, an executive vice president at the Trump Organization from 1995 to 2006 and a judge on “The Apprentice.”

According to Pruitt, during the huddle, “Trump says, ‘But will America buy a —' (Pruitt would not repeat but did confirm Trump’s use of the word) — 'winning?’ He’s staring right at Carolyn, who is standing in silence. Her alabaster skin turned a deep shade of red. We were hanging on her words, and she says nothing. Carolyn was standing, leaning two hands on the table supporting her. And she says nothing.”

Pruitt also says the conversation was recorded for “FCC purposes.”

In the book, Kepcher denies Pruitt’s account. “I assure you if I heard the N-word being used I would remember, and I’d be disgusted,” she said. “I do not remember such an incident.”

More: Omarosa tells NPR she heard tape of Trump using the N-word, contradicting her book

Omarosa Manigault Newman, who also competed in that season of "The Apprentice" and later was a communications director in Trump’s White House before an acrimonious termination, also says Trump called Jackson the racial slur. In her 2018 book “Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House,” she writes, "On this phone conversation, I was told exactly what Donald Trump said – yes, the N-word and others in a classic Trump-goes-nuclear rant – and when he'd said them.” She also claims there is a recording.

Rancic, the white finalist, went on to win the season.

Other famous sources quoted in the book include Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, Roger Stone, Sean Spicer, Katie Couric, Michael J. Fox and Rosie O’Donnell.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump racial-slur rumors resurface in new book 'Method to the Madness'