Omarosa Manigault-Newman—one time Trump administration White House staffer—claims her former boss, President Donald Trump used a variety of racial slurs while she worked for him at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and before then too. She also accuses Trump of misogyny.
The woman best know by her mononymous moniker—Omarosa—made both statements in her upcoming tell-all book about her longtime professional and personal relationship with Donald Trump. The book, titled Unhinged, comes out August 14, 2018.
The two originally met on the first season of The Apprentice in 2004. Since then, Trump referred to Omarosa several times as his loyal friend.
They teamed up again in 2008, 2010 and 2013. When Trump announced his presidential candidacy in 2015, Omarosa stumped on his behalf. She eventually took an official role in the campaign, then the transition team and then the Trump White House.
But things went sour at the end of 2017. In December, the White House announced Omarosa resigned, effective January of 2018.
Shortly after, Omarosa had her own announcement to make about a book deal chronicling her time working with Trump.
Then in the August press tour leading up to her book release, she stated evidence of Trump's mental decline would be revealed in her book.
But critics immediately discounted Omarosa as an unreliable witness.
However a week later, her publisher hinted irrefutable proof of several of the more explosive revelations existed. On August 8, the story of secret legally made recordings by Omarosa, during her time at the White House, broke.
Using her private cell phone—a practice Trump himself maintained and encouraged among his staff—Omarosa recorded meetings and conversations. Washington DC—like New York where Michael Cohen taped Trump—falls under a "one-party consent" law regarding recordings. If one party knows and consents to being recorded, the recordings are legal.
But additional recordings of Trump also exist.
Like the infamous Access Hollywood hot mic recording—when the President bragged of grabbing and kissing women without their consent and grabbing women "by the pussy"—unaired footage and audio from Trump's television shows, The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice, remain.
Part of Omarosa's latest indictments against the President stem from those programs. News of embarrassing and potentially damaging audio from The Apprentice franchise involving Trump making misogynist comments about female contestants, racial and homophobic slurs and mocking the disabled came out in 2016 after the Access Hollywood tape made headlines.
Omarosa states in her book that recordings from that show include Trump using the n-word multiple times based on reliable sources. But she also says she personally never heard him say it.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer—owner of The Apprentice tapes—and creator Mark Burnett refused to release the footage because of "various contractual and legal requirements."
However Omarosa makes other claims, saying she did witness an incident involving George Conway, the husband of White House Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway.
"Would you look at this George Conway article?" Omarosa quotes Trump saying. "Fucking FLIP! Disloyal! Fucking Goo-goo." Both flip and goo-goo are racial slurs for Filipinos and George Conway is half-Filipino.
Afterwards, Omarosa states she felt a "growing realization that Donald Trump was indeed a racist, a bigot and a misogynist."
My certainty about the N-word tape and his frequent uses of that word were the top of a high mountain of truly appalling things I’d experienced with him, during the last two years in particular."
It had finally sunk in that the person I’d thought I’d known so well for so long was actually a racist. Using the N-word was not just the way he talks but, more disturbing, it was how he thought of me and African Americans as a whole."
Reactions to Omarosa's latest revelations acknowledge the possibility of her claims being true, but many question why she chose to work for him and with him for so long.
On Friday afternoon, Omarosa stated the Trump family once offered her $180,000 a year to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
The President has as yet not responded to any of Omarosa's claims.
Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
