Clay Aiken, runner-up on season 2 of American Idol and former North Carolina congressional candidate, has just revealed in an interview with Domecast what it was like behind the scenes on Celebrity Apprentice, on which Aiken was a contestant in 2012.

The big scoop? Donald Trump didn't decide who got fired. In fact, he had almost no say in the direction of the show at all.

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According to Aiken, Trump was basically "a puppet" of NBC producers, adding that he wasn’t the businessman he was perceived to be on TV.

Aiken commented:

Trump didn’t decide who got fired on Apprentice, I mean, NBC made those decisions.

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Aiken describes how Trump was sent lines and notes through a secret on-set device:

There used to be a little thing right on his desk that looked like a phone — he pretended it was a phone — but it was actually a teleprompter where the producers were sending him notes.

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As a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice, Aiken saw how little the future President knew about the program he was "hosting..."

He didn’t know that people were getting in fights during the week while we were doing these tasks, the producers did. And they’d send him notes and he’d say, ‘Oh you two didn’t get along.’

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Aiken wasn't trying to bash Trump by revealing these secrets (after all, many celebrity television hosts probably have similar situations,) but does think they're indicative of how Trump is leading the country today.

I'm not saying this to be incendiary, but Donald Trump isn't the businessman that people believe he is because we saw him on TV playing the 'Apprentice.' And he did look like he was leading, but on 'The Apprentice' he doesn't lead.

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Aiken went on:

I think to myself, the man as president definitely has a teleprompter sitting on his desk right now with people telling him, 'Well such and such is in the healthcare bill, don't say this.' I feel like half the time his teleprompter has broken down as president and he doesn't know what's going on.

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Aiken wrapped up by calling the President a "nice guy" who "didn't make those decisions on the show." He also observed:

He didn't fire those people. [He's] probably leading the country in the same way that he did 'The Apprentice.'

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H/T - Vulture, AOL, Domecast