Trump snipes at ex-aide in spat
President Donald Trump on Monday plunged himself into a made-for-TV spat with his former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman – a mud-slinging match that has fuelled fears of chaos in his White House and cast doubt on his pledge to hire “only the best people”.
Manigault Newman – who first gained fame as a contestant on Trump’s reality show The Apprentice, and then secured a $180,000-a-year staff job at the White House – released a recording of a private conversation she had with the president after she was fired.
The recording by the disgruntled 44-year-old represents another stunning breach of presidential trust. It also came on the eve of the release of her tellall book Unhinged.
NBC’s Today programme on Monday played the brief recording, in which Trump claims to have had no knowledge that she was sacked and expresses regret at the news.
That revelation sparked a stream of presidential invective on Twitter. “Wacky Omarosa, who got fired three times on The Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will,” Trump said in a stream of angry tweets.
The Republican president claimed Manigault Newman “already has a fully signed nondisclosure agreement!” – a first admission members of the administration were asked to sign potentially illegal hush deals.
Manigault Newman’s recordings have also caused political problems for Trump, dominating American headlines for days – and she told NBC there are “absolutely” more audio files.
The latest recording appears to show a president who has little knowledge of what is happening inside his own White House – or who is willing to lie to avoid confrontation.
“Omarosa, what’s going on? I just saw on the news you’re thinking about leaving? What happened?” he said, apparently unaware she had already been fired.
“Nobody even told me about it,” Trump is heard saying, after chief of staff John Kelly terminated her employment.