The reality TV star, who met POTUS last month, says that in order to break the ice she made a 'Celebrity Apprentice' joke that made him laugh.
- Jun 15, 2018
AceShowbiz - Kim Kardashian broke the ice with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House by jokingly demanding an explanation for the firing of her sister Khloe from 2009's The Celebrity Apprentice.
The reality TV beauty was granted a meeting with Trump on 30 May to discuss her clemency campaign for jailed great-grandmother Alice Marie Johnson, who had been handed life without parole for a first-time, non-violent drug offence back in 1996.
Kim's efforts were successful, and Johnson was freed from Aliceville Correctional Institution in Alabama on 6 June.
On Wednesday, June 13, the two women met in person for the first time in Memphis, Tennessee, and during a joint interview on breakfast show Today, Kim recalled the funny first words she uttered to the President, who famously served as the boss on his hit reality series The Apprentice and its spin-off, The Celebrity Apprentice, on which Khloe Kardashian was once a competitor.
"He was at his desk...," Kim shared. "I first said..., 'I am here because I really wanna know why you kicked Khloe off The Apprentice (sic).' That was the first thing I said and he laughed and it broke the ice".
The mother-of-three then "got focused" and addressed Alice's case, claiming Trump was receptive to the idea of commuting Johnson's sentence from the start.
"The President had compassion for her right away," Kim said. "He felt it was the right thing to do".
The White House meeting, which coincidentally took place on Alice's 63rd birthday, occurred after months of lobbying by Kardashian, who first read about Johnson's plight in a Mic.com article in October (17) and subsequently hired her own lawyer to help with the case.
At the time, Alice had no idea who Kim was, but she quickly did her research to find out everything about her benefactor: "I did not know her name, I didn't know Kim," she confessed. "As soon as I found out who she was, I started getting every magazine I could find, I started reading everything that I could about her".
Both Kim and Alice have vowed to continue fighting for justice for others in similar situations, and Kardashian has already brought a few other cases of interest to White House officials' attention.
Meanwhile, Johnson, who fears she'll never be able to properly thank Kim for her freedom, has warned critics to stop badmouthing her pal.
Revealing she keeps high school yearbook photos of Kim and her husband Kanye West in her Bible, and prays for them, she told the 37-year-old, "My focus for you was Psalm 105: 'Touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm.' Kim has been anointed to do this, and no one better not touch her, even with their mouth (sic)!" she scolded.
