Celebrity Apprentice winner Leeza Gibbons: I knew a ‘different version’ of Trump

Donald Trump has gone from blustery businessman to reality star to Republican presidential candidate, and he’s offended his fair share of people along the way: women, immigrants and even Fox News.

So what does Leeza Gibbons, last season’s Celebrity Apprentice winner, make of his campaign trail conduct?

“It’s not surprising to me, although the Donald Trump that I experienced through interviews before and also through Celebrity Apprentice, different version, because we all have different iterations of ourselves,” Gibbons, 59, said Tuesday on The Hoda Kotb Show.

“But the way that I managed to be present for Celebrity Apprentice was, ‘I’m going to see Donald Trump as a dad. I can’t see him as this intimidating kind of figure.’ So that was the optics for me. He was up there with Eric and Don and Ivanka, his children. We don’t share a lot of political beliefs, but we do share respect for family and loyalty and those things. So that was the way that I navigated through that.”

“But look, Hoda, if all the pundits out there can’t figure this out, I don’t think you and I are going to make any sense of it,” she added, laughing.

Though he was leading the polls earlier in the race, Trump, 69, could face a contested convention with Ted Cruz and John Kasich.

The Hoda Kotb Show airs Monday and Wednesday at 2pm ET on TODAY Show Radio (Ch. 108).

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