Omarosa Manigault-Newman, the former reality star-turned White House staffer, said President Donald Trump exhibited a “mental decline that could not be denied,” during her time working for the administration.
In an excerpt from her upcoming book, “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House,” obtained Thursday by DailyMail.com, Manigault-Newman said she became alarmed while watching the now-famous interview Trump gave to Lester Holt.
“While watching the interview I realized that something real and serious was going on in Donald’s brain,” she wrote in her tell-all book. “His mental decline could not be denied.”
“Many didn’t notice it as keenly as I did because I knew him way back when,” she went on to write. “They thought Trump was being Trump, off the cuff. But I knew something wasn’t right.”
According to Manigault-Newman, Trump was debriefed “a dozen times” by then-communications director Hope Hicks, “hitting the key point that he had fired Comey based on the recommendation by the DOJ which the vice president and other surrogates had been reinforcing for days.”
But when the she watched the interview from the press room, she said she was horrified to see the president go off script, essentially admitting that he fired then-FBI Director James Comey over “this Russia thing.”
The White House had previously said that Comey was fired at the Justice Department’s recommendation for mishandling the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server during her time as secretary of state.
“Throughout this erratic and contradictory interview, I kept thinking, ‘Oh no! Oh no! This is bad!,” she wrote. “Donald rambled. He spoke gibberish. He contradicted himself from one sentence to the next.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Manigault-Newman left her job as the director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison in December after nearly 15 years as a member of Trump’s inner circle. She became a household name after appearing on Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice.”
Her departure from the White House made headlines after American Urban Radio Networks journalist April Ryan reported that Secret Service agents physically escorted her from White House premises after she refused to leave. (Manigault Newman, the Secret Service, and the White House all denied these reports).
Hers is the latest in a series of former Trump staffers’ tell-alls to hit the market. Sean Spicer is on a national tour for his book, “The Briefing,” while Anthony Scaramucci is scheduled to release his book “Trump, the Blue-Collar President” in October.
Okay the White House still contends Omarosa signed a resignation letter. But Gen Kelly Kicked her out will high drama with the Minister offering vulgarities and curse words as she was escorted out of the building and off campus
— AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) December 13, 2017
She later compared leaving the administration to “being freed off a planation” during an appearance on “Celebrity Big Brother.”
“Unhinged,” published by Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, hits book shelves on August 14.
Watch Trump’s interview with Holt below.