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Donald Trump and Clay Aiken pose at the "Celebrity Apprentice" Live Finale on May 20, 2012 in New York City. Clay Aiken: My mom's voting for Trump even though he fired me on 'Apprentice'

Donald Trump may have fired her son four years ago on "The Celebrity Apprentice," but Clay Aiken says his mom is all in for the former reality star.

During a discussion on CNN Tuesday afternoon, the "American Idol" runner-up, who also finished second on Trump's show and lost to Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) in the 2014 midterms, said his mom had settled on supporting Trump despite some misgivings.

"I mean, my mother — votes Republican typically, she’s not necessarily thrilled with Donald Trump as a candidate because he fired me on Apprentice," he said. "She watched the debates, the most recent debate, and decided, and a number of people in North Carolina who I’ve spoken to have decided to vote for Trump because the establishment is attacking him and they’re tired of typical politicians."

Aiken placed second to Arsenio Hall in the 2012 edition of Trump's NBC program, nine years after coming up short against Ruben Studdard on "American Idol."

"A lot of the people who are supporting Trump are supporting him because he’s not a typical — he’s not a typical politician," Aiken said during a discussion of American Future Fund Political Action's latest ad hitting the Republican front-runner on his vulgar language.

Those kinds of attacks "have backfired as well," Aiken said.