Donald Trump claimed Joan Rivers voted for him in the 2016 election even though she died in 2014, new book reveals

Former President Donald Trump claimed that the late comedian Joan Rivers voted for him even though she died in 2014, according to an upcoming book about The Apprentice.

In Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Brought America Through the Looking GlassVariety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh asked Trump about his relationship with Rivers, the show’s 2009 Season 8 winner.

“I thought maybe she was a Republican,” Trump said. “I know one thing: she voted for me, based on what she said.”

It is well documented that Rivers had a good relationship with both Trump and his 2016 rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton — but there was a problem with the ex-president’s claim.

Rivers died in 2014, two years and two months before Election Day.

2016 was the first chance that Americans could vote for Trump at the ballot box.

The comment is more striking when you consider that Setoodeh’s six interviews with Trump for the book all took place after the 2020 election, when Trump’s team tried to ensure that dead voters illegally cast votes for President Joe Biden — claims that have been refuted.

Donald Trump (left) poses with Joan Rivers (right) during the live season finale of Celebrity Apprentice in May 2010. He told the author of a new Apprentice book that Rivers voted for him in the 2016 election – despite the fact that she died in September 2014.

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.

Trump had addressed Rivers’ political leanings after discussing the late comedian’s reaction to the firing of her daughter Melissa on that season of the show – Celebrity Apprentice 2.

Apprentice in Wonderland by Variety’s co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh hits bookstores on Tuesday

The ex-president also made it clear that he didn’t care if The Apprentice would be renamed Celebrity Apprentice in those later seasons.

‘I don’t even call it The Celebrity Apprentice, I just call it The Apprentice. I always called it The Apprentice on purpose, because it was The Apprentice. I thought it was a good name, but I’ll just call it The Apprentice,” he said.

“I thought it was disrespectful,” Trump added.

Setoodeh interpreted this to mean that the ex-president was “concerned that the title change would erase the public’s memory of his years of success on TV.”

Still, Trump praised the famous version of his reality show.

“I mean, I have the biggest stars for that show. It was so easy,” the presumptive Republican nominee said. “You know Joan Rivers wouldn’t normally do a show like that, right?”

Setoodeh pointed out that Rivers had “built her career on a willingness to show up wherever there were cameras.”

Donald Trump, Joan Rivers and Melania Trump attend the season finale of The Celebrity Apprentice at the American Museum of Natural History on May 10, 2009 in New York City

And Rivers was a real-life reality television star who threw an epic tantrum, Trump recalled, when she learned Melissa had been fired by the real estate mogul turned reality show host.

“Joan was so angry,” Trump said. “She went crazy when I fired the daughter.”

“Joan loved Melissa more than anything she ever loved. She thought Melissa was the end, and she went crazy defending her daughter,” the ex-president continued. “Oh, they were both screaming. It was great television. But maybe Joan had more right to scream.”

But that on-screen fight, Trump indicated, never diminished Rivers’ regard for him.

“Despite the anger over Melissa, she was a big fan!” he boasted. “She said, ‘No one else I’ve met could have done what you did. She meant it too.’

There are indications that Rivers may have voted for Trump.

On an episode of Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live, Rivers spoke about Trump, telling the head of Bravo that Trump “would have made a great president” after teasing a 2012 bid.

Trump ultimately vacated that election, but was motivated in part to run four years later by President Barack Obama’s ridicule of D-listers involved in Celebrity Apprentice at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“We all know your credentials and extensive experience,” Obama said at the time. “For example – no seriously, recently on an episode of Celebrity Apprentice… the men’s cooking team failed to impress the Omaha Steaks judges.”

“And there was a lot to blame,” Obama said. “But you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership.”

“And so in the end you didn’t blame Lil’ Jon or Meat Loaf. You fired Gary Busey,” the Democratic president said. “And these are the kinds of decisions that keep me up at night.”

After Clinton’s shocking defeat in 2016, Melissa Rivers told a New York audience in October 2017 that her mother would have voted for the female candidate over Trump.

Joan Rivers and Melissa Rivers at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California

“She knew them both,” Melissa told Whoopi Goldberg while promoting a book about her mother. according to The New York Post.

“Our families had a very long, out-of-the-spotlight relationship with the entire Trump family,” Melissa recalled. “I think at the beginning she would have said, ‘Yes, great, great, great great,’ and then she would have said, ‘Oh, s***.’

Melissa added that her mother “has felt for a long time that it was time for a female president.”

“I think ultimately she would have definitely been a Hillary supporter,” the comedian’s daughter said.

Student in Wonderland will be available in bookstores on Tuesday.