Arnie fires back at Trump over ratings

Arnold Schwarzenegger has responded to Donald Trump's tweets that slammed the ratings of The New Celebrity Apprentice and its new host.

"There's nothing more important than the people's work, Donald Trump," Schwarzenegger wrote. "I wish you the best of luck and I hope you'll work for ALL of the American people as aggressively as you worked for your ratings."

Earlier on Friday Trump tweeted about the show, which he used to host and remains an executive producer on, calling himself "the ratings machine" and saying that Schwarzenegger was "destroyed" by comparison.

"Wow, the ratings are in and Arnold Schwarzenegger got "swamped" (or destroyed) by comparison to the ratings machine, DJT," Trump tweeted. "So much for being a movie star -- and that was season 1 compared to season 14. Now compare him to my season 1."

According to Nielsen's preliminary ratings released on Tuesday, the morning after Schwarzenegger's version of the show debuted, the program's ratings had dropped more than 43 per cent since the most recent premiere that Trump hosted in 2015.