President Donald Trump on Tuesday slammed his former “Apprentice” and White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman with a string of expletives , calling her a “dog” and a “crazed, crying lowlife” as her tell-all book hits stores.
Manigault Newman — who first gained fame as a contestant on Trump’s reality TV show — has dripped out recordings of private conversations she had while on staff in the White House as she promotes her memoir about her time with “The Donald.”
The book — in which she variously describes Trump as a racist, liar and “germophobe” with a “total lack of empathy” — has plunged the White House and the president again into crisis, and dominated news headlines for days.
Trump had already branded “Omarosa” — as she is commonly known in America — a “lowlife” after she released a recording of her firing by chief of staff John Kelly, seemingly recorded in the White House Situation Room.
And after she released a recording of a conversation she had with Trump after her firing, he repeated called her “wacky.”
But on Tuesday, he ratcheted up the war of words — to a level of nastiness rarely seen, even from a president who has shown he does not pull punches when insulting his critics.
“When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!” Trump tweeted.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1029329583672307712
His comment immediately prompted criticism on both sides of the political aisle.
“This kind of language is unbecoming of a President of the United States. There is no excuse for it, and Republicans should not be okay with it,” said Republican Senator Jeff Flake, a frequent Trump critic.
“How dare he? He has taken this country to its knees,” said Democratic congresswoman Frederica Wilson.
The recordings by the disgruntled 44-year-old Manigault Newman, once an ardent Trump ally, represents a stunning breach of presidential trust.
On Tuesday, she explained to CBS News why she made the recordings:
“I’m the kind of person who covers her own back. In Trump World, everyone lies.”
“Everyone says one thing one day and they change their story the next day. I wanted to have this type of documentations… in the event I found myself in this position where, as you said, they’re questioning my credibility
Manigault Newman’s book, “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House,” hit bookstores and digital platforms on Tuesday.
Largely self-serving, it describes the daily firefighting of life on the Trump campaign and then in the White House.
“Donald Trump’s single greatest character flaw as a leader and human being is his complete and total lack of empathy,” she writes, describing the president as a “friend” but attacking him relentlessly.
“Nothing has more meaning to Donald than himself,” she says, alleging that he and his wife Melania sleep in separate rooms and that Trump has brought a tanning bed with him to the White House.
US media reported later Tuesday that the Trump campaign intends to prosecute the former aide for breaking a non-disclosure agreement.
Manigault Newman has suggested that Trump has been recorded using racial slurs — and CBS News aired a recording of what appears to be her and other campaign aides hatching a plan to tamp down the damage if such a tape of Trump existed.
