You'd think Donald Trump would have something better to do than mock The Celebrity Apprentice's ratings slide considering he's, ya know, about to be president of the US.

Yet, The Donald spent time that could have been used for one of those pesky daily intelligence briefings arrogantly gloating that Arnold Schwarzenegger's revamped version of The Celebrity Apprentice is struggling in the US TV ratings.

While an audience of 4.95 million for Monday's season premiere doesn't match the highs of The Apprentice's early years, it's not exactly too far off the 6 million who tuned in for Trump's finale in 2015 either.

Never afraid to stretch the truth, Donnie decided to boast to his Twitter faithful: "Wow, the ratings are in and Arnold Schwarzenegger got 'swamped' (or destroyed) by comparison to the ratings machine, DJT.

"So much for being a movie star-and that was season 1 compared to season 14. Now compare him to my season 1."

That's where the smacking down commenced courtesy of new Celebrity Apprentice host Arnold Schwarzenegger, who pointed out that the PEOTUS has more important things to be doing.

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"There's nothing more important than the people's work, @realDonaldTrump," former California governor Arnie replied. "I wish you the best of luck and I hope you'll work for ALL of the American people as aggressively as you worked for your ratings."

Arnie then scored the knockout by sharing a quote from the great US president Abraham Lincoln, asking all Americans to appeal to their "better angels" in this time of great division.

The Terminator taking the high road aside, Donald's bragging about sliding Apprentice ratings is particularly strange since it was recently announced that he'll continue to make money from the show as an executive producer.

We're in for a rocky four years, people...

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Justin Harp

Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.