Ex-aide: I helped hide Trump’s mental decline
President calls Apprentice entrant ‘low-life’ as she tells of breaching White House security to record dismissal
A FORMER aide to Donald Trump said yesterday that she secretly recorded her sacking by John Kelly, the chief of staff, in the high-security White House situation room.
Omarosa Manigault Newman also claimed that Americans were being kept in the dark about the US president’s mental decline, saying: “I was complicit with the White House deceiving this nation.” Miss Newman, whose tell-all book about her White House tenure is released tomorrow, left the administration in December and says she was threatened by Mr Kelly, who told her things could get “ugly” if she did not leave on friendly terms.
She also described the president as a racist – an accusation he has repeatedly denied – on the day white nationalists and counter-protesters gathered in Washington to stage rallies on the anniversary of the Charlottesville farright march, in which a woman died.
Miss Newman made the disclosures on US television hours after the president responded to a question about her book Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House by saying: “Low-life. She’s a low-life.” The former contestant on The Apprentice told NBC’S Meet the Press that she regretted her White House role.
She said: “It is hindsight. But I will say this to you, I was complicit with the White House deceiving this nation.
“They continue to deceive this nation by how mentally declined he is, how difficult it is for him to process complex information, how he is not engaged in some of the most important decisions that impact our country. I was complicit, and for that I regret.”
The 44-year-old then raised security concerns by revealing that she had been able to smuggle her mobile phone into the situation room, where top secrets and strategies are discussed.
“I protected myself because this is a White House where everybody lies; the president lies to the American people; [press secretary] Sarah Huckabee stands in front of the country and lies every single day,” she said.
Kellyanne Conway, counsellor to the president, said: “[This is] the first time I ever heard Omarosa suggest those awful things about the president [and they are] in this book.
“And I think that Omarosa, unfortunately, has undercut her own credibility.” Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: “The very idea a staff member would sneak a recording device into the White House Situation Room shows a blatant disregard for our national security. And then to brag about it on national television further proves the lack of character and integrity of this disgruntled former White House employee.”
Miss Newman claimed without evidence that she had heard a tape of Mr Trump using racist language against African Americans.
She said: “It was confirmed what I feared the most: that Donald Trump is a con and has been masquerading as someone who is actually open to engaging with diverse communities, but when he talks that way, the way he did on his tape, it confirmed that he is truly a racist.”
Last night, only about 20 people turned out for a white nationalist rally outside the White House marking the first anniversary of the Charlottesville event.
Several anticipated speakers did not appear for the “Unite the Right 2” rally, which was drowned out by thousands of counter-protesters in a nearby park chanting “Nazis go home” and “No KKK in the USA”. The counter-protesters included a large number of masked members of the Antifa anti-fascist group.
Jason Kessler, the organiser of the white nationalist gathering, had obtained a permit for up to 400 supporters. There had been a huge police presence in central Washington.