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In 2012, Clay Aiken met now-president Donald Trump on Celebrity Apprentice. He competed in the fifth season of the hit show and seemed to have a fond opinion of the divisive political figure. Now, he had a few words of advice for Trump as he enters his second presidential term.
Clay Aiken Backed Away From Politics After Running for Office
Clay Aiken recently sat down to talk about his upcoming Christmas album, “Christmas Bells Are Ringing.” Many people will remember Aiken from his time on American Idol. He came in second during season two of the competition show, edged out by fan-favorite Ruben Studdard.
After leaving American Idol, Aiken produced several studio albums before falling off in 2010. At that time, he decided to shift his focus to politics. He ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for North Carolina. In 2022, he ran for Congress in his home state of N.C. Neither of his runs were fruitful and now Clay Aiken says that he, “got to a place where I couldn’t stomach the political thing.”
However, he did weigh in on President Donald Trump’s reelection during an interview with Variety. When asked if he was surprised by the outcome of the election, he said, “I’m not going to lie and say I saw it coming like I did in 2016.“
The American Idol alum went on to say that Kamala Harris did a good job with the short time she was given to prepare. In the end, Aiken said, “I can’t pretend I was surprised.”
The American Idol Star’s Advice for Donald Trump
Then, Clay Aiken spoke about the pre-president Donald Trump he came to know during his time on Celebrity Apprentice.
“I wish knowing him gave me better insight. The pre-2016 Trump that I know hated two things: losing and being disliked,” he said. “I really believe his whole refusal to accept the real outcome of the 2020 election was his unwillingness, his pathological inability, to concede that the majority of Americans didn’t like him.”
He went out to point out that Trump won the popular vote this time and he won’t ever have to face losing a presidential election again. The American Idol alum offered up some words of wisdom for the soon-to-be 47th president of the United States.
“He could choose to abandon the divisiveness and hateful rhetoric and try to work on making people happy beyond his base and improving his legacy,” he said. Clay Aiken went on that he was “praying” that the pre-politics Trump was still somewhere in there. He hopes that he still “wants to be loved.”
“If he really does want to get revenge on everyone who said he would destroy the Constitution and said he isn’t fit for the office, I’d just want to remind him that the very best revenge would be proving them all wrong,” Aiken concluded.
