Omarosa Manigault Newman

About

Omarosa Manigault Newman is an American reality television show personality and the former Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison. As a reality show participant on _The Apprentice and White House aide, Omarosa, as she's most commonly known as, has been most closely associated with United States President Donald Trump, appearing alongside the president and television host as contestant on The Apprecentice, The Celebrity Apprentice and All-Star Celebrity Apprentice, as well as campaigning for Trump and working with him in the White House. Following her controversial departure from the White House, Omarosa and the president began a contentious relationship due to the release of Omarosa's tell-all book Unhinged.

History

The Apprentice

On January 8th, 2004, the Donald Trump-hosted reality television series The Apprentice premiered in the United States. Over the course of this first season, Omarosa, a contestant on the series, positioning herself as the villain on the show, became one of the most popular contestants of the season.

While Omarosa was fired from the show, she returned to later seasons of the series, Celebrity Apprentice and All-Star Celebrity Apprentice in 2008 and 2013, respectively.^[1]

Trump Administration

On July 18th, 2016, during the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, Omarosa announced that she would be taking on the role of the Director of African-American Outreach.^[2]

Following the election victory of Donald Trump, on January 4th, 2017, she was announced as the Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison.^[3]

Before the end of the year, on December 13th, Omarosa resigned from her post at the White House, leaving, officially, on January 20th, 2018.^[4]

Unhinged

On August 10th, 2018, the Associated Press^[5] reported that Omarosa in her tell-all book Unhinged, the former White House aide alleges that Donald Trump was a "racist" and "like a dog off the leash," and that she had tapes of Trump using racially insensitive language, saying the word "nigger" on numerous occasions on the set of The Apprentice. She wrote, "I had to go through the pain of witnessing his racism with my own eyes, and hearing it with my own ears, many times, until I couldn’t deny it any longer."

That day, GOP pollster Frank Luntz denied the account. He tweeted,^[8] "I’m in @Omarosa’s book on page 149. She claims to have heard from someone who heard from me that I heard Trump use the N-word. Not only is this flat-out false (I’ve never heard such a thing), but Omarosa didn’t even make an effort to call or email me to verify. Very shoddy work." The post (shown below) received more than 43,000 retweets and 100,000 likes in six days.

That day, The Washington Post^[7] published several pieces of information form the book. In the piece, Omarosa alleges that after being fired from the White House, she was offered another job at the White House as a contractor. However, to accept the job, she would need to sign a non-disclosure agreement, forbidding from discussing Trump, United States Vice President Mike Pence and their families. She described the NDA as "as harsh and restrictive as any I’d seen in all my years of television."

She also reported that in early 2017, Omarosa saw the president eating a piece of paper that as his personal attorney Michael Cohen left the Oval Office. She wrote, "I saw him put a note in his mouth. Since Trump was ever the germaphobe, I was shocked he appeared to be chewing and swallowing the paper. It must have been something very, very sensitive."

On August 12th, Omarosa played an audio recording of Chief of Staff John Kelly firing her from the White House.^[10] She used the audio to allege that Kelly had threatened her if she spoke negatively about her time in the White House. He says, "“I’d like to see this be a friendly departure. There are pretty significant legal issues that we hope don’t develop into something that, that’ll make it ugly for you.”^[9]

On August 13th, 2018 release of Omarosa's tell-all book, Unhinged, Donald Trump tweeted, ^[6] ".@MarkBurnettTV called to say that there are NO TAPES of the Apprentice where I used such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by Wacky and Deranged Omarosa. I don’t have that word in my vocabulary, and never have. She made it up. Look at her MANY recent quotes saying…….such wonderful and powerful things about me – a true Champion of Civil Rights – until she got fired. Omarosa had Zero credibility with the Media (they didn’t want interviews) when she worked in the White House. Now that she says bad about me, they will talk to her. Fake News!" The posts (shown below) received more than 30,000 retweets and 130,000 likes in three days.

On August 14th, Unhinged was released. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said of the book,^[11] "“Instead of telling the truth about all the good President Trump and his administration are doing to make America safe and prosperous, this book is riddled with lies and false accusations. It’s sad that a disgruntled former White House employee is trying to profit off these false attacks, and even worse that the media would now give her a platform.”

That day, Trump tweeted,^[12] "When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!" The post (shown below) received more than 21,000 retweets and 89,000 likes in two days.

Search Interest

External References