Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former reality TV star who followed President Trump into national politics, has stepped down from her post as director of communications at the White House Office of Public Liaison.
“Omarosa Manigault Newman resigned yesterday to pursue other opportunities. Her departure will not be effective until Jan. 20, 2018. We wish her the best in future endeavors and are grateful for her service,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders wrote in an email.
Manigault Newman was one of few high-profile African Americans to support Trump during his campaign last year and was one of the most visible black aides in his administration.
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But her White House role was unclear. She struggled to help Trump build a relationship with African Americans, who have consistently given the president low approval ratings. Manigault Newman also frequently clashed with her colleagues inside the White House, reportedly using her friendship with Trump to ignore the chain of command.
Longtime black Republicans also chafed at Manigault Newman’s White House post, arguing that she was not a true member of the party. Before Trump entered the presidential race, she was backing Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Manigault Newman became a breakout star in the first season of Trump’s “Apprentice” franchise by playing the role of a backbiting villain who would kneecap other contestants in her quest to win. She did not take the top prize, but she became a favorite of Trump, who invited her to participate in subsequent iterations of the show.
She brought that same confrontational persona to the political arena, fiercely defending Trump against accusations that he was racist and sexist.
During the campaign last year, she elicited ire and eye-rolls when she predicted in an interview on “Frontline” that Trump would win and that “every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump.”
During the past several months of the Trump administration, she has engaged in public spats with African American groups, including the Congressional Black Caucus, grass-roots activists and black journalists. She also was criticized for promising that Trump would provide additional funding to struggling historically black colleges and universities — which didn’t quite materialize. The presidents of those institutions gained little other than a highly publicized meeting with administration officials in February, which included a photo op with Trump in the Oval Office.
