Omarosa Manigault Newman, the Apprentice candidate turned White House staffer, has released a new recording of what she says is a 2017 phone conversation with President Donald Trump that suggests he had been unaware of her firing until the news emerged in media reports.
“Omarosa, what’s going on?” Trump can be heard saying in the audio released Monday. “I just saw on the news that you’re thinking about leaving. What happened?”
“General Kelly came to me and said that you guys wanted me to leave,” Newman replied.
“No, nobody even told me about that,” the president said. “You know they run a big operation, but I didn’t know it.” He added, “Damn it…I don’t love you leaving at all.”
The audio is the second secret recording to be released by the former White House aide and reality star amid the promotion of her new book Unhinged, an account of Newman’s brief and controversial tenure in the White House. Soon after Newman’s unceremonious ouster in December, she joined CBS’s Celebrity Big Brother and made disparaging comments about Trump.
#Breaking: @OMAROSA provides @NBCNews with this exclusive excerpt of a recording of a phone call that she says she received from President Trump the day after White House Chief of Staff John Kelly fired her. pic.twitter.com/OJe47RdcDC
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 13, 2018
On Sunday, Newman appeared on Meet the Press, where she similarly presented audio that she had surreptitiously recorded during her firing from the White House—a tense conversation she claims took place in the Situation Room. The claim quickly prompted fierce criticism and calls for her prosecution.
“Do you think the President lies often?” –@savannahguthrie
“Oh, absolutely.” –@OMAROSA pic.twitter.com/6PXZ21UMTD
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 13, 2018
