Why is Omarosa giving America warnings about Trump and Pence?

It's OK to wonder if Omarosa has the good of the country in mind — or the good of her brand

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published February 13, 2018 3:34PM (EST)

Omarosa Manigault (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Omarosa Manigault (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Reality TV star-turned-White House aide-turned-reality TV star again Omarosa Manigault Newman is finding her way back to the headlines. Yes, she's saying the things that you'd want to hear, but should she be believed?

"As bad as y’all think Trump is, you would be worried about [Vice President Mike] Pence," Manigault Newman told her housemates on a recent episode of "Big Brother: Celebrity Edition." "Everybody that's wishing for impeachment might want to reconsider their life. We would be begging for days of Trump if Pence became president, that’s all I’m saying. He’s extreme."

She added: "I'm Christian, I love Jesus, but he thinks Jesus tells him to say things. I'm like, 'Jesus didn't say that.'"

Manigault Newman said that Trump turned on DACA recipients in order to pressure Congress into funding his border wall — a statement that hardly shattered the walls in American newsrooms.

It's been an explosive few days for the woman known simply as Omarosa. Recently, she made a point of discussing her tenure with Trump in the "Big Brother." When asked why she agreed to work for Trump in last week's episode, she described it as "a call to duty" but claimed to have been "always haunted by tweets, every day. Like, 'What is he going to tweet next?'"

After adding that she tried to control Trump but was kept away by people like Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Manigault Newman began crying about the state of America.

"It's bad. It's not going to be OK. It's not," Manigault Newman told her fellow contestant Ross Mathews.

But it's hard to say what Omarosa's credibility is. Her firing as director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison in December was blamed on her use of a White House car service as an office pickup and drop-off service, according to Politico. She then tried to storm the White House residence in order to speak to Trump directly about her termination.

But maybe Manigault Newman is upset that she's no longer part of the crowd. After all, she had no such qualms about Trump in July 2016, when, while part of the Trump campaign, she insisted, "The good thing I know is that I know Donald Trump at his heart." Less than two months before the election, Manigault Newman predicted: "Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It's everyone who's ever doubted Donald. Who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him. It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe."

After the election, Manigault Newman also claimed that Trump has a "long memory" and is "keeping a list" of those who crossed him.


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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Donald Trump Mike Pence Omarosa Omarosa Manigault