This series assembles significant quotes from prominent Trump associates openly dissing the Donald. Read part one here, two here, three here, four here, five here, six here, seven here, eight here, nine here, ten here and part eleven here. This is part twelve.
Our tally so far is sixty-nine. More to come. Today, however, for something different, we have selected some intriguing observations from just one of Trump’s closest co-workers. Well, former co-worker.
Omarosa Manigault Newman first worked with Trump in television in 2004 and then more recently as the director of African-American outreach in the White House. She knows him well.
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“I had a lot of organizational things to do (at the Great Faith Ministries black church in Detroit in 2016) , so I got up to take care of them. He grabbed my wrist and said, ‘You can’t leave me with these people.’ The look in his eyes was like a lost child.”
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“The change in my mind and heart was due to a combination of factors, but mainly, my growing realization that Donald Trump was indeed a racist, a bigot, and a misogynist ... It had finally sunk in that the person I thought I’d known so well for so long was actually a racist. Using the N-word was not just the way he talks, but, more disturbing, it was how he thought of me and African Americans as a whole.”
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“The Donald Trump of 2018 is not the same man he was in 2003. When I met him, many of our beliefs were aligned. He identified with Democrats and supported commonsense gun control, like banning assault weapons; legalizing marijuana; universal health care; and even a tax hike on the wealthy. He thought Hillary Clinton was a ‘great’ senator and donated money to her campaigns and at least $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Between then and his run for the White House, he changed his party affiliation several times, landing on Republican.”
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“I seriously began to suspect that the president was delusional or had a mental condition, that made him forget from one day to the next. Was Donald like Ronald Reagan, impaired while everyone around him ran the show and covered up for him? Was Mike Pence his Nancy Reagan, with the same vapid, adoring looks?”
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“There were times when Donald Trump would say something just so insane and we would look at each other and kind of have a silent nod like let’s just agree in the room, but none of us are going to implement what this man just said.”
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“While watching that interview (with NBC’s Lester Holt in May 2017), I realized that something real and serious was going on in Donald’s brain. His mental decline could not be denied. Many in the White House didn’t notice it as keenly as I did because I knew him way back when. They thought Trump was being Trump, off the cuff. But I knew something wasn’t right.”
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“You can look at some successes in the economy, but when you see the deterioration of the fabric of our Democracy then that becomes very, very harmful in the long run.”
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“For as long as I’d known Trump, I’d observed the way he hugs, touches, and kisses Ivanka; the way she calls him Daddy. In my opinion, based on my observations, their relationship goes up to the line of appropriate father/daughter behavior and jumps right over it. I believe he covets his daughter ... she knows she’s Daddy’s little girl, and I believe she exploits his fixation with her to get her way. (At a meeting ahead of the 2016 Republican convention, Trump stopped everyone to talk about how good Ivanka looked in her skirt): Ivanka came into the room wearing a fitted skirt. The entire meeting had to stop so he could gush about her body.”
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“It was often discussed among Trumpworld intimates that Donald had something to do with Melania’s obtaining a rare Einstein Visa, a.k.a. an EB-1, that gives immigrants with ‘extraordinary ability’ or ‘sustained national and international acclaim’ US citizenship. Many have questioned her qualifications for receiving this visa, and have speculated that Trump was able to use his networks ... Since Donald is fully aware of how she acquired her permanent citizenship, he could, if there were anything fishy around it, expose the methods and somehow invalidate it. He is a vindictive man, and I would not put anything past him. If Melania were to try to pull the ultimate humiliation and leave him while he’s in office, he would find a way to punish her. Melania is fighting back by punishing him with her fashion choices, including the infamous “I really don’t care” jacket she wore to visit immigrant children.”
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Sources are here, here, here, here and here.
To be continued ...
Readers’ tips in the comments are invited.