Omarosa shades Donald Trump’s political future amid fraud trial: ‘Hard to run for president from jail’
Ex-President Donald Trump’s political future doesn’t look bright, according to his former White House employee Omarosa Manigault Newman.
“I think it would be very hard for Donald Trump to run for president from jail,” the reality star exclusively told Page Six during a press junket for her latest unscripted venture, E!’s “House of Villains.”
Omarosa, 49, was undoubtedly referring to Trump’s ongoing legal woes, including a $250 million civil fraud trial in New York.
As recently as Monday, The Post reported that special counsel Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors accused lawyers for Trump of making “distorted and exaggerated” claims about their access to classified information.
It’s speculated that the claims are part of a strategy to delay the scheduled May 2024 trial meant to address Trump’s handling of sensitive government records — after losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.
For more Page Six reality TV updates …
“It’ll be very hard for [Trump to run for president again],” Omarosa added of the 77-year-old, reiterating her belief that he will land behind bars sooner than he’ll be able to reclaim the role of commander in chief.
Omarosa notably met Trump while she was a contestant on the first season of “The Apprentice,” filmed in 2003. The Ohio native — known for her icy demeanor and cutthroat approach to competition — later appeared with Trump on his spinoffs “The Celebrity Apprentice” and “The Ultimate Merger.”
After maintaining a relationship with Trump for more than a decade, Omarosa joined his 2016 presidential campaign as Director of African American Outreach and after his victory, she became his Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison.
In December 2017, though, she was fired by then-chief of staff John F. Kelly — a contentious experience she detailed in her 2018 memoir, “Unhinged.” Today, she does not have a relationship with Trump and has made it known that she regrets supporting his administration.
Omarosa told us that some of her “House of Villains” castmates were interested in her previous political work, while some seemed incapable of comprehending it — namely Bachelor Nation’s Corinne Olympios.
“It was so sad because Corinne didn’t know much about politics, so it was hard to have a conversation with somebody who wasn’t plugged in to politics,” she said shadily. “I don’t even know that she could spell ‘White House.’”
However, Omarosa gave props to “Vanderpump Rules” OG Jax Taylor and “90 Day Fiancé” alum Anfisa Arkhipchenko — her roommates on “House of Villains” — for their adeptness at engaging in conversations about the sociopolitical climate and current events.
“My roommates were very in tact with what’s going on in the world, very tied in to what was happening globally,” she explained. ‘I was very fortunate because I got the two smartest roommates. The others, I don’t know.”
“House of Villains” also stars infamous reality TV players Tiffany “New York” Pollard (“Flavor of Love”), Jonny Fairplay (“Survivor”), Tanisha Thomas (“Bad Girls Club”), Bobby Lytes (“Love & Hip Hop: Miami”), Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzi (“The Challenge”) and Shake Chatterjee (“Love Is Blind”) — who are all scheming to score a $200,000 cash prize by the end of the season.
“We shot ‘The Apprentice’ in September of 2003 and here we are almost 20 years to the day and I wanted to do something fun to celebrate my 20 years in this crazy business,” Omarosa told Page Six of her decision to sign on to the project.
“When [my] agency called me and pitched it to me, I thought, ‘This sounds like old-school reality TV.’ [We’re] getting back to the roots, in a house living with people you don’t know, strategizing, conniving and backstabbing,” she elaborated. “It’s delicious.”
“House of Villains” premieres Thursday at 10 p.m. ET on E!