USTH: First of all, Mr. Trump, congratulations on Celebrity Apprentice being renewed for another season.

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much.

USTH: Well deserved; it's a great show.

DONALD TRUMP: Thanks a lot; I appreciate it.

USTH: As you look back on this past season, how happy are you with the way it all turned out? What are your thoughts about the way the whole season developed?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, you know, I'm very happy with the final two. I actually took a lot of heat, fellows, I will tell you this because so many people liked Lil Jon. I have this very large Twitter account with millions of people, and I will tell you I took heat. Penn and Trace, [the people] loved Lil Jon and they were very disappointed.
Now, it also was that he happened to say something at his little interview.  He said, "Please Tweet Mr. Trump and say, 'You made a mistake,'" so maybe that had to do with it.  That could very well have had to do with it.  But a lot of people really felt very strongly about him, and I think the two guys would say he was terrific.

PENN JILLETTE: Absolutely.

DONALD TRUMP: I really like who we ended up with. I really like the season. It was a very good season. Very competitive from a lot of standpoints because there were so many [other series] – the Sunday night hours are very, very tough. You have all of the finales. You have all of the major Country Music awards, and there were so many different competitive shows, and yet we still did well. You had the Bible I guess in cable; you had [Game of Thrones]; you had everything.
I think Sunday night has become – Sunday night used to be an easy night. I think it's now maybe the most competitive night on television. And despite that we did very well. We almost always won the 10:00 hour and we're really happy about it. But I like the way the season came out.

USTH: My next question is for Penn and Trace.  Do you consider yourselves to be competitive by nature, or is this something new that came out of you while playing this game?

PENN JILLETTE: It's very new for me. I've never played sports. I've never been a game player. I've always kind of been in my own little world. And I've never really focused on any sort of competition thing. And I actually enjoyed it. Maybe I've got to start playing chess or something.

DONALD TRUMP: Get yourself into sports; you'd be great at sports. You don't play – you've never played sports? I didn't know that. Wow.

PENN JILLETTE: I've never been a sports player, no.

DONALD TRUMP: With that size you would think you'd be good.

PENN JILLETTE: I've always been a bit of a bookworm, I'm afraid.

TRACE ADKINS: I, on the other hand, am an old jock and yes, the competitiveness started at a very early age with me and it continues on today, really.  I mean, the business that I'm in, country music, is a competitive business. To be relevant in this business means to be competitive, and that's how I continue to be relevant because I continue to be competitive.

USTH: On the first interview that we did before the season began, I asked Brett Michaels and LaToya Jackson to describe their charities and why it was important to them. You both have done a little bit of that on the show already, but I feel you can never talk about your charities too much. So I'd like to give you the opportunity once again to each of you to talk about your charity. What's the name of it, and why is it important to you?

TRACE ADKINS: Okay, I will just say at this point though you watch Sunday night because they give us ample opportunity to talk a lot about our charities. They spent a lot of time interviewing us and interviewing the people that we are representing. And so Sunday night, they go into our charities in great depth. So, that will all be on there Sunday night.
But I'll just tell you quickly that the American Red Cross showed up at my office in June, 2011 when we had a house fire. Our house was a total loss, and right on the heels of the firefighters was the American Red Cross. And I was embarrassed at that time to learn that they respond to over 70,000 house fires a year in this country. I didn't know that.
I thought the Red Cross was just the huge natural disaster response team, and I was embarrassed to learn that they – somewhere in this country right now, there's a Red Cross volunteer that's helping somebody. And, I just felt like I owed them something for being at my house when I wasn't there. I was in Alaska, so I play [Celebrity Apprentice] for the American Red Cross.

PENN JILLETTE: And I play for Opportunity Village, which is now a local charity in Las Vegas.  [Penn and Teller] do a lot of stuff with charity in Vegas. The reason I chose Opportunity Village is I'm hoping that the idea will spread. It is for people with intellectual disabilities, and it is the idea of not warehousing these people or keeping them separate from us, but rather training them to have skills and [integrate] into the workplace and just not be part of an intellectual apartheid. And I'm hoping that that idea has been successful.
One of the things that's wonderful about being on Celebrity Apprentice besides the fact that it helps Penn and Teller, a bigger fact is people from all over the country have called Opportunity Village and talked about starting them in other cities. And I need to add because –Mr. Trump cannot hear this enough – that it was Elvis Presley's favorite charity. Every scarf that he would wear in Vegas and wipe his brow and kiss and throw into the audience was made by the clients in Opportunity Village.
And I will also say that they do a lot of stuff for Mr. Trump.  At some of his hotels and properties, they do some packaging for him there. So, it's a wonderful charity to move people with intellectual disabilities into the mainstream and let them be part of us and let us love them and appreciate them.

USTH: That sounds great. Finally, as you guys look back on this past season, what are the feelings that you are left with, and are you surprised about anything that you learned about yourself?

PENN JILLETTE: Yes, I'm a little surprised that I believe I'm a little less of a creep than I thought. I've always seen myself as much more of an outsider, and I think Celebrity Apprentice let me deal with people that I normally wouldn't deal with and understand that I can get along a little better with them. That meant a lot to me. Also, after talking about the charity, this seems a little crass, but as well as we were doing in Vegas before [Celebrity Apprentice], we're doing much, much better now, [it] is the biggest bump we've ever seen.

TRACE ADKINS: Wow.

USTH:  And Trace?

TRACE ADKINS: I'm not really surprised, but I have to say from day one when I showed up and I got to peruse the cast, I thought if I was going to win this thing that Penn was going to be the man I was going to have to beat. And that's why I chose him first when I was given the opportunity to choose my team. I picked him, and then I was going to pick Omarosa and use her to dispatch Penn. But Brett picked her, and I knew immediately he'd made a mistake, and she cut his throat the first week.
Anyway what have I learned about myself? That I have more patience and tolerance than I thought I did.

USTH: Can you tell us, in broad strokes, about some of the plot lines for the remainder of this season?

DAVID GIUNTOLI: Absolutely. Nick and Juliette start patching things up. And it's looking very hopeful for us come the end of the season. Two: a level 10 – as I like to call it – Wesen comes to Portland who is pulling the strings controlling a lot of other types of Wesen. We can call them the undead.
And he has an army of people under his control that wreak havoc. And this is a longer story arc. We'll be visited by an actor named Reg E. Cathey. He's a wonderful actor who's just been in House of Cards, and he's been in everything. And he's great. And he plays this kind of powerful Wesen that we will be introduced to in the next couple of episodes.
The Royals get closer and closer to me. They come to Portland, and they want the key. And I learn much more about why it is they want the key. The Captain and I start working together.
Let's see... Zombies are entering Portland. And also as far as Adalind goes – the Adalind storyline is insane. And that's all I'll say about that.

USTH: Looking to season three, what would you like to see happen with your character in both his professional and personal lives?

DAVID GIUNTOLI: Well, I'd like to see some resolve – some real closure – to the Juliette storyline. I love working with Bitsie Tulloch [who portrays Juliette Silverton], and it'd be nice to be just a couple again.
I want to get Sergeant Wu into the fray of the knowing. That would be really fun to work with him in the way that now Russell, Hank, and I can work together and Bree and Silas and the Captain. I would love to get Sergeant Wu into the fray.

USTH: Now that you've completed two seasons, what has this whole experience meant for you as an actor?

DAVID GIUNTOLI: I look back at the beginning of season one, and I'm like, "Who is that kid, that supple little kid?" It has been just an absolute gift to me and a blessing. And I've learned so much. I feel like I get paid to learn every day.
And I've become very good friends with a lot of my cast. And, you know, we live in Portland together. And they're my group now. It's been so lovely. And there's the producers and the writers and my bosses are also giving. They leave us alone. They give support. You never feel criticized. It's a very healthy place to be. So I'm very grateful.

USTH: You're on Tuesday nights for the rest of the season. Do you know if you're going to be on Tuesday nights in season three?

DAVID GIUNTOLI: I don't know if we'll be on Tuesday nights in season three. I guess we'll all kind of figure that out together based upon how we fit on Tuesday night for the rest of the season. I'd be really –I have had that thought myself. I do not know the answer.

USTH: Regarding working with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Can you tell us a little bit about what it's like to have her on the show? And who is on your personal wish list for potential guest stars in the future that you would like to work with?

DAVID GIUNTOLI: Oh gosh. I can't say that just because there's so many. I wouldn't want to offend the people, you know?  Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was wonderful to work with. And the episodes that she's been in have been so work intensive, and she has such a wonderful work ethic. And she's so fury, and working with her I get caught watching her all of the time and almost forget that I'm in the scene. Because she's so captivating and compelling and beautiful and just makes wonderful choices. And, you know, that's what I think about her.
I've really enjoyed the guest actors we've had thus far. And anybody's who's decided to come who can swing it we'll love to have.

USTH: Is there like a specific type of actor that you think fits well into the Grimm family?

DAVID GIUNTOLI: Sure, character actors.

USTH: Does it help to be a theater actor?

DAVID GIUNTOLI: You don't have to be like a theater actor per se. I mean, most actors have done some theater. I love the local guys getting some jobs – guys and girls getting some jobs because these are people who have dedicated to theater and they live in Portland. So there're not a ton of gigs that show up there. So I love when we get a really great new talent.
But also it's fun to expose viewers to people who you have not seen much. We had an actor named Brian Finney who is a very well respected actor in Los Angeles. He works with the Robbins Theater – the Actors' Gang. And he played the Ziegevolk in the episode where he was a lawyer who charmed the jury. And, it was great getting to have him. So, you know, that's the type of actor.

USTH: As far as you personally are concerned, what do you like to do during your down time? Are you an actor who seeks other projects like theater or movies? Or do you just like to take it easy until the season begins again?

DAVID GIUNTOLI: I like to seek other jobs that I think will push me and do something that I'm not currently doing.

USTH: Okay, do you have anything in the pipeline that you want to talk about?

DAVID GIUNTOLI: I do, but I can't talk about it because it's not a solidified yes. But I appreciate the question.