Omarosa Manigault Newman - Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House

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To my loving mother

Theresa Manigault

O n Tuesday, December 12, 2017, I was sitting at my desk in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB) in the White House complex, when my assistant, Alexa Pursley, walked in looking perplexed.

I just got an email from General Kellys executive assistant, she said. He wants to meet you in the Situation Room at five.

Really, I said. Ever since General John Kelly had become chief of staff at the end of July, replacing Reince Priebus, he rarely had two minutes for me. And now, suddenly, he wanted a meeting? It was highly unusual to be called to the Situation Room in the West Wingwhere former president Barack Obama plotted the strategy to kill Osama bin Laden; where President Donald Trump planned the attack on Syria to retaliate for their use of chemical weapons; where every president since John F. Kennedy had top-secret conversations with world leaders. Why didnt Kelly want to meet in his office?

At the appropriate time, Alexa and I walked over to the Situation Room. We sat down at the large boardroom table. Next to arrive were several White House lawyers, including Uttam Dhillon, deputy counsel to the president, and Stefan Passantino, deputy White House counsel in charge of compliance and ethics. Finally, General Kelly walked in.

A brusque man, Kelly looked at Alexa and asked, Who are you?

She said, Omarosas assistant.

He said, Could you leave us alone?

Alexa gathered her things and left.

General Kelly sat down and said, Were going to talk to you about leaving the White House. Its come to my attention there have been significant integrity issues related to you. The integrity issues are very serious. If this were the military, this would be a pretty high level of accountability, meaning a court-martial. Were not suggesting any legal action here. Its a pretty serious offense. Id like to see this be a friendly departure. There are pretty significant legal issues that we hope wont make it ugly for you. If we make this a friendly departure, you can look at your time here in the White House as a year of service to the nation. You can go on without any type of difficulty in the future relative to your reputation. But its very important that you understand there are serious legal issues that have been violated and you are open to some legal action that we hope we can control.

I asked whether the president was aware of this.

This is a nonnegotiable discussion.

Id like the opportunity to understand, I said.

There are serious integrity violations, he said.

Why was he being so vague? What violations?

The staff works for me, not the president. So after your departure, Ill inform him. With that, Ill let you go.

What is he talking about? Where is this coming from?

Quickly, I connected the dots.

This had to be about the N-word tape.

THE FIRST TIME I heard about the N-word tape was during the campaign. The day after the infamous Access Hollywood tape came out, a former Apprentice producer named Bill Pruitt sent a tantalizing tweet that there are far worse tapes of Donald Trump captured on set; in October 2017, Pruitt told NPR the tapes contained unfathomably despicable words about African Americans, Jewish people, all of the above. At that time, Pruitt had reached out to several people in Trumpworld, including Lynne Patton, then Eric Trumps longtime personal assistant who was running HUDs programs in New York and New Jersey, to try to raise awareness about this tape. Jason Miller, the campaigns communications director, had also received a heads-up call that the N-word tape was about to drop. On a four-way conference call with Jason, Lynne, spokesperson Katrina Pierson, and myself, we discussed whether it was possible Trump really had said those things and, if so, how it would be handled. But the tape never came out. I had to assume something or someone stopped it from happening. We got through the election and hadnt heard a peep about it again.

Until now.

Speculation about the N-word tape had become intense again, and I was determined to get to the bottom of it. When Id first heard about the possibility of a tape of Trump using the N-word a year ago, I was highly doubtful that it existed. My first thought was to protect the candidate about something false. But in the year since, my mind was turning about the man Id called a friend for almost fifteen years. Id been loyal to him all this time, but if I had any proof that this tape was real, I would pack up my office and submit my resignation immediately.

Id had one foot out the door since the mishandling of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. And, in October, there was Trumps insensitive condolence call with the widow of an Army Special Forces soldier killed in Niger, followed by Trump and Kellys racially charged attack on Representative Frederica Wilson who heard the call and told the press about it. Trumps endorsement of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, a man whod been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, only added insult to injury.

The N-word tape would be the last last straw for me. With so much speculation, I had to assume that its release was imminent, and I did not want to be sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue if and when the story broke, with Trumps scrambles to defend his usage of that word played repeatedly on every news channel for weeks.

Id informed Hope Hicks, the White House director of communications at the time, that chatter about the N-word tape was heating up. The very existence of it fell squarely in my portfolio since it centered on race relations. Id emailed before one of our daily comms meetings that a source from The Apprentice days had contacted me and claimed to be in possession of the tape.

By that point, three sources in three separate conversations had described the contents of this tape. They all told me that President Trump hadnt just dropped a single N-word bomb. Hed said it multiple times throughout the shows taping during off-camera outtakes, particularly during the first season of The Apprentice .

I appeared on the first season. I was the only African American woman, and Kwame Jackson was the only black man, in a cast of sixteen. I had to wonder, if Trump used the N-word so frequently during that season of the show, had he ever used it to refer to either Kwame or myself? I would look like the biggest imbecile alive for supporting a man who used that word. And if hed used it about me, the betrayal would be devastating. Id known him since the first day of shooting The Apprentic e in September 2003, and wed grown closer ever since. If hed spewed that hateful word about me or anyone, I had to know.

I need to hear it for myself, I told Hope.

Whats the plan? she asked. What are you going to do? Ever since that meeting, shed been eager and asking frequently about my progress on the matter.

What I suspect happened: Hope Hicks had told John Kelly that I was this close to getting my hands on the tape. As had been widely reported, Kelly had been dying to get rid of me since his first day. Now he had cause. I wasnt sure how hed justify it, but I was sure it all led back to that tape.