Trump's presidential reality show
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In private conversations with President Trump before his first Omarosa eruption, advisers counseled him to hold his tongue.
What we're hearing: Several told him to ignore her and that engaging would only boost her book sales. Trump said privately that First Lady Melania Trump had advised him to stay above it. But they knew he wouldn't be able to resist.
And they were right. Trump's reality TV background, always a subtext of his approach to governing, this week became the dominant sensibility as he and his aides repeatedly engaged the celebrity villain from his "Apprentice" days:
- Trump tweets about the former communications director for his Office of Public Liaison: "When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!"
- Even Trump defender Geraldo Rivera scolded the president for that one: "Fear my friend @realDonaldTrump undermines himself by using intemperate, boorish language to describe his enemies. I can't stand @OMAROSA a bully, back stabber & big mouth. But to call her a 'dog' & 'low life' is beneath dignity of the office of @POTUS & open to ugly connotation."
- The enemy of my enemy ... To bolster his case against O, Trump retweets Michael Cohen, the former fixer who turned on him and released an audio clip of Trump discussing hush money. Cohen tweeted: To "the many dozens of #journalists who called me, questioning @OMAROSA claim in her new book that @POTUS @realDonaldTrump took a note from me, put it in his mouth and ate it...I saw NO such thing and am shocked anyone would take this seriously."
- "Trump's campaign arm ... filed a complaint with an arbitrator, accusing former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman of violating a 2016 confidentiality agreement with her tell-all book and publicity tour." (NPR)
- And then, in response to Sarah Sanders' inability to issue a blanket denial on Omarosa's most incendiary allegation, the cable news banners ... CNN: "WH: 'CANNOT GUARANTEE' TAPE WON'T REVEAL TRUMP USING N-WORD" ... Fox: "WH: CANNOT GUARANTEE RECORDINGS WON'T REVEAL TRUMP USING RACIAL SLUR."
A current White House official told us: "From the folks I've talked to (and I know I feel this way), it's honestly more of true disappointment that she did this."
- "Not because she's some pillar of integrity ... but because at the end of the day, she was in the trenches with us."
- "[I]t's truly a bummer to think anyone can turn on so many people, so quickly."
- "And ... she's clearly enjoying it."
The big picture, from an outside West Wing adviser: "Friends and allies are unfazed by the chaos around Omarosa, stunned by his retweeting Cohen ... and fearful about Manafort rolling over."
- Omarosa ends her three pages of acknowledgments: "To God be the glory!"
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