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Omarosa Manigault Newman, who rose to fame as a candidate on the Donald Trump-fronted reality show The Apprentice and later held a staff position in his administration, has endorsed his rival Kamala Harris for president.
Manigault Newman appeared in the first season of The Apprentice in 2004 and was well-liked by Trump. She had previously worked in the office of Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton administration in the 1990s, and in 2017 took the position of director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison under President Trump.
Speaking to Variety, she said: “I have no reservation in — I guess I’m saying this for the first time — completely, 100 percent endorsing Kamala Harris for President.”
Manigault Newman’s 2018 memoir Unhinged drew on her experiences in the Trump White House to paint a picture of the former president as racist and cognitively impaired.
In the new interview, she told Variety that she believes Trump will be particularly concerned about losing to Harris in November’s presidential election.
“Donald Trump has been defeated before, and I think what’s grating on his nerves the most is that this [next] defeat may come at the hands of a woman of color,” she said.
“He reserves his most vitriolic attacks for women of color. To lose to a woman of color would be devastating to his ego.”
She went on to outline her fears that a second Trump administration would be less constrained and more “extreme” than the first.
“One of the reasons that Mike Pence was selected [as Trump’s 2016 running mate] is that there was a belief that Pence would be a calming factor,” she said.
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“I remember a lot of the discussion was that the establishment would be able to get Donald Trump in line, have him embrace the theology of conservatives.
“Instead, Donald Trump hijacked the party and pushed out individuals who would be able to modulate his behavior. He has made it explicit that if he wins again, he would empower the most extreme individuals in his circle.”
In 2022, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was ordered to pay Manigault Newman nearly $1.3m in legal fees.
The former president’s campaign had sued Manigault Newman over the publication of Unhinged, which the campaign said violated a non-disclosure agreement.
Trump lost the case in September 2021, but in the aftermath, both sides disputed the size of the settlement.
