Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House

by Omarosa Manigault Newman

The change in my mind and heart was due to a combination of factors, but mainly, my growing realization that Donald Trump was indeed a racist, a bigot, and a misogynist.

Our relationship was symbiotic; we exploited each other. Trump and NBC used me to promote the show, lobby for an Emmy, and bring in diverse viewers. I used the success of the first season to catapult my Hollywood career on multiple shows, movies, a book deal, and celebrity appearances. Back then, being in Trumpworld was lucrative.

Say what you will about my standing by Trump for way too long (which I agree with!), I was the only African American woman in the room, the only one speaking up for a community that, in the Trump White House, had not one other voice.

To my knowledge, the United States is the only country in the world that has created a separate currency for its poor. To me, it seems to be a form of intentionally shaming those in need.

Wanting to attend a historically black college was instilled in me by watching two of my favorite shows of all time, The Cosby Show and A Different World. Like the fictional Hillman College (based on Stillman College) from the shows, CSU was an empowering environment that celebrated African American culture and excellence. There was so much cultural pride and opportunity for leadership and advancement there. Finally armed with the tools I needed to be successful inside the classroom, I had a whole new concept of what my life could be.

She explained that I had an unusual balance of femininity and masculinity in my outlook on the workplace. I was extremely feminine in my style, but my test scores showed that I strategized like the men and that my competitive nature was more aligned with traditional male perspectives. Think like a man, act like a woman!

First, he said, “You can win without winning just by making sure no one forgets your name.” My father had done me the favor of giving me the unique Nigerian name Omarosaonee (I shortened it to Omarosa in school), which means “my beautiful child desired.” Sure, it wasn’t easy to pronounce, like Jill or Becky, but it was memorable.

“Reality TV is about conflict and tension.” He suggested that I should either be (1) starting a fight, (2) stirring one, or (3) breaking one up. “Whatever you do, be where the action is.”

The show aired at the end of January 2004, and overnight, I went from anonymous to famous. The Apprentice was a mega hit, seen by more than twenty million viewers, and creative editing solidified my role as the supervillain, the person you loved to hate. I was a bit concerned about that. I was going for strong black woman, not angry black woman. There is a big difference.

Throughout the 2016 campaign and his presidency, many pundits have talked about the dangers of “normalizing” Trump’s offensive, inappropriate, provocative comments and behavior. But for as long as I’ve known the man, being offensive, inappropriate, and off-color is normal for him.

If your boss expressed political views that differed from yours, would you protest and quit your job? I reasoned that he had a right to his opinion, just as I had a right to mine. The difference was, he had unlimited cash and a big bullhorn, and if he could try to use them to keep Obama from getting the nomination of his party, he would.

Barack Obama’s presidency incensed Donald Trump. In his mind, Obama wasn’t just black, he was foreign, with a father from Kenya. He was suspicious of Obama’s otherness, which is an actual term in the study of “whiteness.” The otherness wasn’t just being black; it was being African. Foreign. Exotic. Other. By Barack Obama becoming president, he made Donald Trump look like a fool.

“Say what you will about Mr. Trump, he certainly would bring some change to the White House. Let’s see what we’ve got up there.” Then, on the screen behind him, an image appeared of the White House with a Trump sign branded upon it, like Trump Tower. It was in that moment, in that room, that Donald Trump made the decision, not only that he would run for president in 2016, but also that he would take his revenge on Obama’s humiliating him in front of all those influential people. I was there to witness it.

he is racial, though, in that he uses race and racial relations to manipulate people. I believed the birther movement stuff was opposition research, as he claimed, but it also had the purpose of riling up the Republican base of white voters. Trump’s racialization of illegal immigrants and his rhetoric about “building a wall” served the same goal.

“Reality television has now taken over television. People want to see real moments and see life unfold in front of them. Not scripted, but real moments. When you have a big reality TV star as the front-runner for the Republican nomination, there is no way to separate it. This is the new reality.

I worked hard to meet with BLM because I believe the movement is needed. Too many African American men are being killed by police officers. Gun violence had taken my brother. I was most certainly aware and concerned about police violence, gun control, and systematic racism! I had protested the killing of Trayvon Martin, and in Ferguson, Missouri, about the shooting of Michael Brown. BLM is important and vital to African Americans.

I ran into Donna Brazile coming out of the CNN booth at the RNC. She congratulated me on my appointment. She’d always been supportive and real with me. She reminded me that we need people in both camps.

In a text about my switching parties, she said, “We need you there. We are comforted that you’ll be in the room and at the table, as long as you are there we’re going to be okay.” I will always be grateful for her counsel at the time.

Trump said he wanted to improve the lives of all Americans, he blamed our country’s problems completely and specifically on certain subsets of the population: black and brown people. It was hard to miss the racial undertones of his speech. When he railed against criminals, terrorists, and gangs, many figured he was not talking about white people.

He simply couldn’t admit that he’d done anything wrong and he had no empathy for anyone he’d offended, because he had no empathy for anyone, period. Donald Trump’s single greatest character flaw as a leader and human being is his complete and total lack of empathy.

As usual in Trumpworld, there was little to no diversity; I was the only African American woman on the executive committee.

“tackled by your own teammate.” I was trying to run the ball, and he would tackle me with his ignorance. The community would ponder, What exactly is Omarosa doing in there if Trump keeps going off the rails? She must not be doing her job. If only they knew the struggle I faced keeping Trump from sounding full racist on any given day.

The next day the headline was about Kellyanne barefoot in the Oval and not about the historic meeting with HBCU presidents in the Oval Office. It was historic because in his eight years in office Obama had never invited all the presidents to the White House. But that point was lost because of Kellyanne. This time I’d been tackled by my own teammate at the one-yard line.

We went from Barack Obama, a scholar, an academic, to Donald Trump, who was just this side of functionally literate.

If news got out that I thought the president was delusional or mentally impaired, the impact on national and global stability could be cataclysmic. I would eventually talk to several high-level people in the White House about my concerns, and they all shut me down quickly and decisively, with warnings.

I should have protected myself. But there are no manuals about how to deal with your mentor of nearly fifteen years who becomes the president of the United States. I should have set boundaries, gone through the proper channels. But I believed that Donald would protect me if anything came up. If you made it into his inner circle, he would move heaven and earth to protect you.

Schools are shutting down in depressed neighborhoods all over the country to be replaced with for-profit schools, eliminating neighborhood cultural centers, forcing kids to travel great distances, with little proof that only charter schools provide a better education. I think that it should be a parental choice. The parents should choose what is best for their children. Not Betsy DeVos.

life. The sentiment could be summed up as, “Shut up and play.” The Trump tactic was to reframe the issue. The players took a knee for social justice. Donald reframed it to be about patriotism, saying that if they didn’t stand for the national anthem, they weren’t patriotic; they were against the military. You won’t find a single player who would agree with that.