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

by Omarosa Manigault Newman

People suspected that there was a relationship between Fox News and the Trump campaign, and that there were people at Fox working tirelessly to get him elected. To all those people, I can confirm that you have no idea just how right you were. The back-and-forth of daily communications between individuals at Fox and the Trump White House continues to this day. People joke that Trump gets his talking points by watching Fox News, and that is certainly true. But individuals at Fox News are also speaking directly to his team of advisers every single day. The channel’s channels are wide-open.

Train”) or 1973’s “For the Love of Money,” which had been The Apprentice

Don Jr. likened Syrian refugees to a bowl of Skittles, reigniting the outcry that the entire family was racist, hated Muslims, and equated immigrants and asylum seekers with terrorists. Trump just shook his head and said, “Look at what he did now. He screwed up again. What a f**kup.”

In fact, I lay some of the blame for Hillary’s low turnout on those assurances from the media that her victory was a sure thing. Voter behavior indicates that if voters believe their candidate has it in the bag, they will not, for example, take off work to go vote and lose a day’s wages, believing their vote isn’t needed. The press actually demotivated her base. If they’d reported the truth, that the race was very close, there is no doubt in my mind that they would have turned out for her.

The change in him since his prime was dramatic. Back on season one of The Apprentice, there had been a mix-up on one of the episodes where a contestant lost money on a task, and they were discussing figures. Donald Trump repeated a lengthy numbers sequence with no notes in front of him, calculated them in his head in moments, and came to his conclusion that the math-addled contestant should be fired. That was how sharp he used to be. Now? The blade had been dulled.

The fact that Donald had pulled out my chair at the listening session back in February made headlines, with high-level anonymous sources asking, “Can you imagine the president of the United States pulling out a chair for an aide?” It was impossible not to hear the condescending and racist overtones. Would people have said that if he pulled out a chair for Hope Hicks?

When the first 5:00 a.m. call from the President came post-Kelly takeover, I told Donald that he had to curtail his communications with everyone, especially by cell phone. He asked why. I told him that Kelly wanted everything to go through official channels. And I didn’t disagree. The president went back to his NYC days and said, “F**k Kelly! I will do whatever I want to do!” I did not debrief Kelly on this conversation with the president.

The idea of limiting Trump’s exposure to people might have seemed wise at first. But what it actually did was cut him off from trusted friends who kept him grounded and somewhat sane. Kelly’s move to isolate Trump drove him crazy; he watched even more cable news and relied on phone calls and social media—even more than before—to satisfy his deep need for positive feedback, in-person affirmation of his greatness, and an ear to vent to.

This is the most valuable insight in the whole book as I see it.

The only other explanation was that his mental state was so deteriorated that the filter between the worst impulses of his mind and his mouth was completely gone.

When Trump said, “The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” General Kelly dropped his face into his hands, a gesture that became known as the facepalm felt around the world. However, the truth is, Kelly was not necessarily as exasperated as he appeared. Rumors circulated around the West Wing that Kelly suffers from excruciating migraines—which possibly began during his military service—and he was in the throes of one of those episodes at the assembly. According to a source close to Kelly, the stress of his new role, the noise and light in the room, and the pressure triggered the migraine and he had no choice but to sit there and suffer through it. As bad as it was to put his face in his hands, it would have looked far worse if he’d walked out. As an officer, his service is compromised by this affliction, and he doesn’t talk about it and prefers to appear to be made of stone. But when he gets a headache at work, he is vicious, bordering on cruel to his staff.

As long as DJT got cheers when he trashed these powerful black men, he was not going to stop.

Also, the public needs to recognize that not all Trump supporters are the same. While you rail against one policy of his or another, you may not know you are speaking to a closet Trumplican. As I traveled the country, the most unsuspecting people whispered to me that they voted for him. People of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, races, religions. It’s dangerous to group all his voters into one box and insult them, when you could be listening to them and understanding their point of view, and finding common ground instead. Rest assured that there is an army of people who oppose him and his policies. They are working silently and tirelessly to make sure he does not cause harm to the republic. Many in this silent army are in his party, his administration, and even in his own family. We are reminded daily that Trump is still in the throes of the Mueller investigation. The special investigators are conducting interviews with subjects who have stories to tell. In early 2018, I, too, received a call from the FBI. We’ll see how that goes. But for me, fifteen years later—through The Apprentice, the campaign, and the White House—I can finally exhale. I’ve escaped from the cult of Trumpworld. I’m free.