Omarosa Manigault Newman has revealed a new secret recording in which President Donald Trump appears to express surprise when she told him she had been fired as a White House aide.
The tape, which Newman claims was made immediately after her dismissal last year, was played Monday on NBC’s “Today” show.
In the recording Trump appears to have no idea that Manigault Newman had been fired by Chief of Staff John Kelly, according to NBC News. She claimed the tape was made one day after she was fired in December 2017 when the president called her.
“Omarosa? Omarosa what’s going on?” Trump is heard on the tape. “I just saw on the news that you’re thinking about leaving? What happened?”
Manigault Newman says: “General Kelly – Generally Kelly came to me and said that you guys wanted me to leave.”
“No…I, I, Nobody even told me about it,” Trump replies.
And Trump adds: “You know they run a big operation, but I didn’t know it. I didn’t know that. Goddamn it. I don’t love you leaving at all.”
The network news said it was not known what was said before or after the exchange.
Manigault Newman told "Today" that the title of her book was aimed directly at Trump. She said Kelly is running the White House.
She accused Trump of lying to the American people and said he didn't know what was going on within his own administration.
"He doesn’t even know what’s happening in his White House," Manigault Newman said. "He's being puppeted."
"Is General Kelly running this country or is the president running this country," she said.
Manigault Newman speculated to "Today" that Trump may have instructed Kelly to fire her, despite his expression of not knowing about it, but she offered no evidence.
She also suggested that more recordings were coming, as she threatened to "blow the whistle" on White House corruption.
The White House, which offered stinging criticism over the weekend, did not immediately respond to questions on the new recording.
The tape comes just a day after she released another recording on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” In that tape, Kelly allegedly calls for her “friendly departure” from the White House without any “difficulty in the future relative to your reputation.”
The release of the recording comes as she promotes her new book, “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.”
Manigault Newman, a former “Apprentice” contestant, had also claimed on the “Meet the Press” appearance that she has personally heard a tape of Trump using the N-word during filming of the NBC show.
Meanwhile, the White House has blasted her as a “disgruntled” former employee.