Former President Donald Trump said he hired Apprentice star Omarosa as a White House assistant as an “experiment” and fired her because everyone “hated” her and she was “late all the time.”
In the upcoming book Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Brought America Through the Looking GlassVariety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh spoke to Trump for the first time about Omarosa’s resignation from the White House.
After three appearances on The Apprentice and appearances on the 2016 campaign trail, Trump announced he was hiring the former reality star just weeks before he was sworn in in 2017 — as assistant to the president and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison.
She lasted until December and was fired by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly for overusing the White House car service. Politico reported thisand other bad behavior, DailyMail.com agreed.
Trump told Setoodeh that the problems were even broader.
“I saw very little of her in the White House. The White House is a very big place! They’re actually buildings. But people in Washington hated her,” he said.
“Her personality: She was late all the time. She wouldn’t show up,” the ex-president continued. ‘Look, I tried restore its reputation as an experiment.”
In an upcoming book about The Apprentice, former President Donald Trump (left) chronicles the rise and fall of his relationship with Omarosa (right), who appeared on the show three times and was then hired as a White House aide and 11 fired people. months later
Omarosa is photographed in the White House briefing room in October 2017. Trump said he hired her as an “experiment” and fired her because everyone “hated” her and she was “late all the time.”
‘And when I did, I said, ‘This probably won’t work, but let’s see what happens,'” Trump added. “And I also said… ‘If she gets fired, there’s always a price to pay.’ It is a pity. She hasn’t cut the mustard in the White House.’
Omarosa had previously worked in the White House – under Democratic President Bill Clinton – but came to Trumpworld in 2004 as a contestant on season one of The Apprentice.
Variety’s co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh book about The Apprentice hits shelves on Tuesday
“Omarosa was a big hit in her first year,” Trump told Setoodeh. “Her anger, her madness, it just worked so incredibly well.”
When she was told you’re fired by Trump in March 2004, she told NBC’s Chris Matthews that she did not complete the challenge because she suffered from a concussion after hitting her head on a small piece of plaster on set.
Eric Trump found this excuse ridiculous, he told the book’s author.
“Listen, Omarosa played the bad guy,” the middle Trump son said. ‘We as a company know plaster very well. We are builders. A small drop of plaster fell on her shoulder and she’s walking around with ice packs, as if a high beam fell from the top of a building and hit her. Do I think she’s hurt? No. But that was great entertainment.”
The future president thought so too and brought Omarosa back to The Apprentice twice in later seasons.
“She was a great television personality the first time around. And then I turned her on a second time, and she bombed,” Trump recalled.
What was so successful the first time, Trump told Setoodeh, was that Omarosa “didn’t know how big her arc was going to be,” the author wrote.
“She was bad the first time,” Trump said. “The second time she tried to be bad. And the third time she tried even harder. And if you try, you won’t succeed. Does that make any sense?’ the ex-president asked.
Although she flopped, Trump decided to give her another chance by creating public reach, especially among African Americans.
“And then I helped her get a job at the White House because she begged me to help her recover. So I thought: why not? I put her in,” Trump continued.
The then-president-elect said he always felt like trouble was coming.
“When we hired her, I told people, ‘If we fire her, we’re just going to have problems.’
“But that’s okay. That’s the way life goes,” Trump added.
Setoodeh asked Trump during his series of six interviews, all conducted after President Joe Biden took office, why he would bring Omarosa to the White House if she could not be trusted.
“A lot of things I do in life, I do as experiments,” Trump responded. “I mean, I do it out of human interest, just to see who’s loyal and who’s not.”
“She was actually really great to me until she left,” he added.
Then Republican candidate Donald Trump (left) whispers to Omarosa (right), a three-time alumna of his reality show The Apprentice, as they appear together during a campaign stop in Detroit, Michigan in September 2016.
Omarosa (right) is pictured in the White House briefing room in February 2017, a month into the Trump administration, next to adviser to the President Kellyanne Conway (left) and Hope Hicks (center), the director of strategic communications
According to news reports at the time of her firing, Omarosa was escorted off the White House grounds when she tried to enter the residence to plead her case to the president — an account she denies.
While some other former Trump aides have returned to the fold, that has not been the case with Omarosa.
Trump was still angry about Omarosa’s sweeping statement in 2018, Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.
“And when she left, she got a book deal and made some money. They could all do that. But if they do, they’re assholes,” the presumptive Republican nominee said. “They don’t pay, I guess, if you say nice things.”
“I hear she lost that money,” Trump then claimed, without evidence.
‘I don’t know, something happened. She also had a whole affair with the man,” the ex-president also claimed. ‘And the family. It was always dramatic.’
Omarosa’s publicist did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
Other attempts to contact the former White House aide were unsuccessful.