Piers Morgan has ruled out a reconciliation with his former friend, Donald Trump.
The Good Morning Britain presenter and former president first met when Piers was a contestant on the celebrity edition of The Apprentice USA in 2008, which he went on to win.
After staying in touch with Trump, Piers showed him support throughout most of his presidency, but later called him out due to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the deadly riots at the US Capitol earlier this month.
During Thursday’s edition of GMB, the morning after Trump left office, Piers insisted he was done defending him, and would not be rekindling their friendship.
“For people like me who liked Trump, who got on with him and known him for a long time, way longer before he was a politician and after, it was incredibly disappointing to see him lose his mind, lose any sense of leadership, and in the end actually inspire a riot against the heart of American democracy,” he said.
“At that point, I was done. That’s it, sorry, I can’t be with someone like that.”
When weather presenter Alex Beresford questioned if there could ever be a reconciliation, Piers said: “I don’t think so now. I am a completely loyal person, I stuck with him when everyone was loathing him… I have always got on well with him, I did his Apprentice show 12 years ago – that is when we became friends.
“He is what he is, he’s an extraordinary, unique character – good, bad and ugly. The problem is when America got really tested, that was always the unanswered question – in a real crisis what would he be like? And the truth is he turned out to be an utter disaster.”
Piers publicly ended his friendship with Trump after the US Capitol riots, saying at the time: “I can’t remain friends with someone who says he ‘loves’ a bunch of violent Nazi sympathisers and white supremacists who’ve just launched a deadly attack on the epicentre of US democracy itself and thinks they’re special people.”
Appearing on Gabby Logan’s The Mid.Point podcast, Piers admitted: “Do I regret now, you know, being defensive of Trump when others were hammering him? Yeah. Because I think that he has shown a side to him in the last year that I didn’t see in the long time I’d known him.
“All the positives I’d found with Trump have been completely consumed and overtaken by his appalling leadership in the last year. And to the extent where, the way he incited that mob to do what they did, that to me crossed a line where I can’t be his friend anymore. I just can’t. There were white supremacists and people wearing Auschwitz shirts that he called people that were ‘special people – I love you.’ Well, sorry, then we’re done.”
During the same interview, Piers revealed he often “plays up to” a character during his more controversial moments on GMB.
Good Morning Britain airs every weekday from 6am on ITV.