In this week’s episode of “As The Donald Distracts,” our ongoing made-for-media drama produced and directed by the Trump White House, erstwhile sycophantic supporter Omarosa Manigault Newman has turned from trusted inner-circle advisor to fired-and-feared administration antagonist as she peddles her self-serving memoir, “Unhinged.”
“I will say I am going to expose the corruption that went on in the campaign and in the White House. I’m going to continue to blow the whistle on all of that,’ she said on MSNBC Tuesday.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump responded in his usual, tiny-fingered manner, tweeting out a racist insult, calling Omarosa – who’s such a dramatic star from her reality-show appearances that she goes by a single moniker – a “dog.” Then, to escalate matters, Trump’s campaign filed a complaint accusing her of violating a 2016 nondisclosure agreement — in effect, going to court to keep her from spilling the beans on dirty-inside information within his administration.
All of this is sensational as political theatre, but it’s real-world application is meaningless. What’s worse, none of this commotion has anything at all to do with the governance of our nation. In fact, it distracts public attention and media scrutiny from real issues, such as the immigrant children who remain separated from their parents as a result of Trump’s cruel, “no tolerance”policy toward peaceful migrants and asylum seekers.
As former Think Progress editor Judd Legum reports in his Popular Information newsletter, the nation is being distracted by Omarosa/Trump shenanigans. “Interest in the Omarosa story far exceeds interest in the child separation story, even at its June peak,” Legum writes. “This week, despite hundreds of kids still in limbo, child separation barely registers.”
However harsh Trump may be toward antagonists like Omarosa, he’ll gladly make use of the conflict. It is, after all, a boon to him — it’s what the White House wants. Its governing strategy is by distraction, much like the Wizard of Oz’s ability to deceive citizens of the Emerald City with misdirection, double-talk and slight of hand antics. Indeed, Trump and his fellow actors in the West Wing equate the American public with a gullible audience that will applaud his repeating loop of lies, name-calling and racist insults. In that respect, Omarosa is still the amateur — and the enabler.
Why is it that white people need to hear a racist say the nword on tape to know it's a racist?
A 4 year old black child can pick a racist out of a crowd at Costco, but grown ass white people need a signed and tape recorded confession.
— Omarosa never fooled black people…. (@BravenakBlog) August 15, 2018
So, at this point in the performance, Omarosa enters, stage left, with all the blustery bravado of a brass band. In a breathless series of media appearances over the past weekend to promote her book, Omarosa released some of the secret recordings she made with White House staffers — including snippets of her being fired by Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly. She followed that up with another surreptitious tape of several campaign aides discussing how to deal with the potential fallout from a rumored recording of Trump using the “N-word” during the filming of “The Apprentice.”
“It is interesting that he is trying to silence me,” Manigault Newman said on MSNBC. “What is he trying to hide or afraid of? If he had not said anything that is derogatory or demeaning to African-Americans and women, why would he go to the extent to shut me down?”
.@OMAROSA on Trump taking legal action to silence her: "What is he trying to hide or afraid of? If he has not said anything that's derogatory or demeaning to African Americans, why would he go to the extent to shut me down?"
She also confirms she's been interviewed by Mueller. pic.twitter.com/uzKbSiTa1W
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 14, 2018
Let’s pause, here, for a station break just to set the record straight before going too far down the race-card road. Omarosa has never been an avatar of the black community. Sure, she might have been garnered a following a stint as a villianous competitor during her days on “The Apprentice,” but even there, her acclaim was based on the reality-television genre’s cringe-worthy potential for train-wreck embarrassment than actual cheering support for her or her antics.
Of course, any hope of Omarosa evolving into a beloved African-American pop culture celebrity evaporated during the 2016 election when she signed up, full voice, with the MAGA crowd. In short, Omarosa has no credibility among black Americans and her traitorous turn against Trump only affirms questions regarding her trustworthiness.
“Her tell-all mea culpa won’t win her any brownie points with most blacks,” Earl Ofari Hutchinson, author of the book “Why Black Lives Do Matter” told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “Their loathing of Omarosa is virtually frozen in stone. She’s still roundly lambasted as a two-bit opportunist, a racial sellout, and an ego driven hustler.”
So, as this tacky episode draws to its unsatisfying conclusion, the hullabaloo over whether Trump actually uttered a racial slur (come on, now, who honestly doubts that the did?) or whether a recording exists of him saying it, is all for naught.
I mean, really: how is it possible to care? At this point, after all the cruel, insensitive and deceitful things that Trump has either said or tweeted on a nonstop basis — both before he became president and since — what revelation about his toxic persona is powerful enough to change a single opinion of him in America or around the world?
Far from being some sort of game-changing moment in which Trump’s reputation hangs in the balance, this current media boomlet, with Omarosa cast as the unreliable narrator, is more of the same old song-and-dance. Nothing the formerly favored apprentice can produce in her tell-all book is likely to persuade Trump’s captive audience to turn the channel. As usual, it will only divert attention from what’s really important.