Omarosa Manigault: the villain, the honorable, the unemployed.
After just under a year of serving as the White House’s director of communications for the Public Liaison Office — while doing a scant amount of actual liaisoning — Manigault has left the building. And the whiff of drama is trailing in her wake. Whether she strutted out of the West Wing with stilettos blazing or was escorted out by security, one thing is clear: She made her mark.
Staying true to her reality-show roots, Manigault, who first stole hearts and spurned haters when she arrived on the scene as the devil du jour of “The Apprentice,” never let her hefty title or proximity to the president outshine her story line.
So as the postmortems of Manigault’s tenure in the White House begin to pile up, we offer a timeline of the former Trump insider’s greatest (or worst) hits. Consider this an unofficial outline for Manigault’s next book, one of the “other opportunities” she plans to pursue, according to a person close to her.
February 2016: Tamara Holder vs. Manigault. While just a regular ol’ Trump supporter appearing on cable news to burnish her former boss’s credentials, Manigault calls out Holder, a Fox News contributor and critic of Trump, for having “big boobs.”
June 2016: The former “Apprentice” star, still without an official role in the presidential campaign, dubs herself Trump’s “Valerie Jarrett,” telling a crowd of women at a business conference that she was “the person who pulls him back when he goes too far.” She adds, “I told him to stop calling Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas.” (Sage advice that obviously had an expiration date.)
July 2016: While serving as then-candidate Trump’s director of African American outreach, Manigault, who is an ordained minister, gets engaged to Pastor John Allen Newman of Jacksonville, Fla. The two have been dating for less than a year.
January 2017: Manigault officially joins the White House team.
February 2017: Manigault vs. Nordstrom shoppers. While hunting for a wedding dress, Manigault is accosted by two women who aren’t fans. “These fat ladies won’t stop following me,” a person recalls Manigault telling employees at the Tysons Corner shop. One of the women allegedly calls the White House staffer “Trump’s whore.” Security is called.
Later in February 2017: Manigault vs. journalist April Ryan. The epic beef between the two former pals kicks off when Ryan, a longtime White House correspondent, accuses the White House aide of trying to “physically intimidate” her outside of then-press secretary Sean Spicer’s office. Ryan adds that Manigault verbally threatened her, to which the White House aide responds, “Fake news!”
April 2017: Manigault dips her toe back into the reality pond with an appearance on TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress.” According to White House financial disclosures, in exchange for her appearance, she “received a wedding package which included a wedding dress, custom veil, and accessories with an estimated value of $25,000.”
Later in April 2017: Manigault gets married. After reportedly postponing and relocating her wedding due to security concerns — and staging an elaborate photo shoot at 1600 Penn with her 39-person bridal party — the White House aide ties the knot in front of 150 guests at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. She promises to take Newman “for richer or for richer.”
June 2017: Manigault vs. the Congressional Black Caucus. In an attempt to actually liaise and invite caucus members to the White House, the Trump aide still manages to ruffles feathers. The former reality-TV star signs the invitation to legislators as “the Honorable Omarosa Manigault,” a honorific that is generally not used when referring to oneself.
August 2017: Manigault vs. the National Association of Black Journalists. During a contentious appearance at the group’s convention in New Orleans, Manigault tells the crowd during a panel discussion about her work in the White House, saying: “I fight on the front lines every day. If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” Things do not go well.
September 2017: Manigault vs. April Ryan (again). During the Congressional Black Caucus’s annual gala, Ryan and her co-host, comedian Anthony Anderson, joke that Manigault had “some trouble getting in at the door.” Although it turns out she was there, the White House aide and Ryan later go at it on Twitter. Manigault claims that the veteran reporter’s “big break” came because of her and Trump. Ryan responds, in part, “You need to worry about your job and why the entire room booed you last night!”
December 2017: The White House announces that Manigault has tendered her resignation. The reality-show alum remains uncharacteristically silent on Twitter. But Ryan, her former pal, does not. According to the White House journalist, Manigault was fired by John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff. Manigault is not happy, to say the least, according to Ryan.
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