White House: Don't trust Omarosa because she was fired from "The Apprentice"

Former “Apprentice” star turned top aide to the president of the United States Omarosa Manigault Newman was fired by the White House in December, but now the White House is citing a series of phony “firing” incidents on the TV show to deflect from her recent negative comments about Donald Trump.

“The Apprentice” isn’t real. The “firings” Trump participated in on the program as its host were phony made-for-television moments in which Trump and the contestants, including Newman, participated in contrived banter for entertainment purposes.

Now Newman is a contestant on the most recent edition of “Celebrity Big Brother,” where she is trashing her time in the administration and talking about how it is “so bad.”

When another contestant on the show asked if the country is going to be OK under Trump, she answered, “It’s going to not be OK. It’s not.”

Asked about her statements argued during the daily press briefing, deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah said Newman’s comments about working in the White House should not be taken seriously because “Omarosa was fired three times on ‘The Apprentice’ and this was the fourth time we let her go.”

But if being “fired” from a reality TV show is disqualifying, why did the White House hire her in the first place?

Newman came in with the Trump administration and served as assistant to the president and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison. In that capacity, she earned a salary of $179,700 a year — paid by taxpayer dollars.

Shah also said she had “limited contact” with Trump during her time in the White House.

But during a “listening session” for Black History Month in 2017, Trump sat next to her and described her as “my television star.” Trump also said, “She is a very good person and she’s been helpful right from the beginning of the campaign.  And I appreciate it.  I really do. Very special.”

Her tenure in the White House was a series of public disruptions, feuds, and other embarrassing moments that culminated in her firing. She was reportedly escorted from the White House when she refused to leave.

April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks reported at the time, “Omarosa is alleged to have acted very vulgar and cursed a lot and said she helped elect President Trump.”

She was in Trump’s orbit because she appeared on his reality TV show several times. She had no business drawing a six-figure salary at public expense, and during her tenure in the White House, she was a constant embarrassment.

The decision to hire her in the first place falls on Trump, who wanted a “yes” woman around him to spew comments like the ones she gave to PBS’ “Frontline.”

“Every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump,” she said

The entire debacle, like so much else, has blown up in Trump’s face. So now his underlings are covering for him, citing imaginary firings as part of a made-up narrative to explain why they used tax dollars to pay a reality TV villain to do a bad job.