Reviewer & Author Interviewer, Norm Goldman. Norm is the Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com.
He has been reviewing books for the past twenty years after retiring from the legal profession.
To read more about Norm Follow Here
Author: Omarosa Manigault Newman
Publisher: Gallery Books
ISBN: 978-1-9821-0970-7
Curiosity
got the better of me when I picked up a copy of Omarosa Manigault
Newman's Unhinged:An Insider's Account of the Trump White House.
Author: Omarosa Manigault Newman
Publisher: Gallery Books
ISBN: 978-1-9821-0970-7
Curiosity
got the better of me when I picked up a copy of Omarosa Manigault
Newman's Unhinged:An Insider's Account of the Trump White House.
My initial thought concerning Omarosa had been was how could
an intelligent woman be taken in by the cult of the Trump world? Did
she sell herself to the devil in the hope that she could really make
a difference helping the African-American community? Was she
overestimating her importance? Was she taken in by the glitter of
power and wealth? Was she overambitious?
Not very long into
my reading where Omarosa, who no doubt anticipated these questions,
requests of her readers that they hear her out and cast aside any of
their prejudices they may have about her actions.
According to
Omarosa, the simple answer to my complex question is that she stayed
on because of her loyalty to Trump. She further explains: “he was
one of the most famous men in America, a businessman I admired and
wanted to emulate. I grew up poor and on public assistance, and I
looked up to affluent figures like him. I desired to experience his
extraordinary success for myself, to have a life of wealth and
luxury. Donald Trump was uncannily intuitive and extremely
perceptive.” Moreover, “Trump in 2018 was not the same man I knew
in 2003, when I first met him.” Apparently, they had a great deal
in common and she had a great deal to learn from him.
When
writing about her experiences on the television reality series, The
Apprentice, she describes them as a symbiotic relationship. “I gave
him ratings, and he gave me, a woman of color, opportunities again
and again, which, in turn gave him someone to point to and say, I'm
not a racist misogynist! Look at all I've done for Omarosa!”
Omarosa does admit she had a blind spot and thus she could
not see what she should have seen. In fact, at no point during their
mutually profitable relationship did she stop to think that she was
being used by Trump. The longer she stayed involved, the deeper was
her loyalty to Trump and the bigger her blind spot became. She
attributes this to the fact that Trump chooses people who are very
loyal to him, who subscribe to his fame, charisma and his magnetism,
and she happened to be one of the chosen. As she affirms: “I never
stopped to ask myself what all this conflict meant for the future of
our country. If I acknowledged my role in what was happening, I would
have come to terms with nearly thirteen years of suppressed doubts
and concerns about Donald Trump, and I was simply incapable of doing
that at that point.” In a nutshell , Omarosa comes clean and
blames being taken in by her loyalty, blind faith, naivety, and
misplaced admiration for Trump.
The book divides itself into
three sections, The Apprentice Years, The Campaign and The White
House with a Prologue and an Epilogue. And if you expect to be privy
to some information that has not been previously disclosed by the
media, you will be disappointed, although we do learn a little about
the famous tape where Trump was caught uttering the “N” word
multiple times, which by the way, up to now, is still out there in
someone's hands.
Although some parts of the book offer a more
candid view of the chaos and conflict surrounding Trump, particularly
the first days in the White House, a great deal of these descriptions
has already been rehashed ad finitum in the media. What is quite
interesting, however, is Omarosa's defense of Trump's rhetoric during
the early days of the presidential campaign where she states that he
is not “racist” but rather “racial.”
In the end, I
was wondering what all the fuss was about when this supposedly tell-
all book first came out? Why all the name calling by Trump and his
cohorts? I guess it all boils down to the fact that Trump cannot
stand that someone, who at one time pledged her allegiance and
loyalty to him, turned against him when she was shown the door by his
chief of staff, General Kelly. Then again, perhaps it is because that
much of what she discloses, and according to her, can be verified due
to her recording of conversations she had with several people who
were not aware they were being recorded. Now the question is, when
will all of these recordings be released, although we have heard the
one where she is fired by General Kelly and a subsequent one where
Trump sounds surprised that she was let go. Incidentally, Omarosa has
recently stated that she is ready to testify at Trump's impeachment
trial.