Ousted White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman recently told friends and associates that she recorded private phone calls between herself and White House senior advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner – President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law.
One of those conversations took place Dec. 14, the day after Manigault Newman, who worked as director of the Office of Public Liaison, was informed by White House chief of staff John Kelly she was being fired.
[Related: Melania’s office rips Omarosa for ‘lashing out’ in book that says marriage is in turmoil]
Trump and Kushner expressed their condolences over the news and said they were surprised to hear it, according to Politico.
Since late last week, Manigault – once named “#1 Reality-Show Villain of All Time” by TV Guide – has been airing recordings of her conversations with White House officials as a way to tease her forthcoming tell-all book, “Unhinged.”
On Monday, NBC aired a recording from Manigault Newman in which Trump said he was not aware of Kelly’s decision to fire her.
“Omarosa, what’s going on?” Trump had asked her during a phone call following her termination. “I just saw on the news that you’re thinking about leaving? What happened?”
“Gen. Kelly came to me and said that you guys wanted me to leave,” she replied.
“Nobody even told me about it,” Trump replied. “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.”
A day earlier, she shared with NBC’s “Meet the Press” a three-minute conversation in which Kelly terminated her for “some pretty, in my opinion, significant integrity issues” in 2018. The conversation took place in the Situation Room and Manigault Newman recorded it despite White House rules.
Trump and Manigault Newman first met in 2004 when she was a contestant on the first season of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” of which Trump was the host.
