Michael D'Antonio is author of the book "Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success" (St. Martin's Press). The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) Some of the juiciest bits from Omarosa Manigault Newman's "Unhinged: An Insider's Account from the Trump White House" include allegations that the President is a bigoted, emotionally abusive man in mental decline.

Trump and his surrogates are already challenging the accounts offered by the former White House aide who, fittingly, first met him when he was a reality TV show host and she was a contestant. However, they won't be able to refute her conclusion about the relationship between Trump and his most avid allies, because it's a judgment based on the sum of her experiences and not one lone anecdote.

In describing the events that made it possible for her to write her tell-all, Manigault Newman notes that she had "escaped from the cult of Trumpworld." If a cult of Trump exists, the woman he helped become a household name -- say "Omarosa" and everyone knows who you're talking about -- is a prime example of the rapt and dependent believer who becomes an outspoken apostate.

Turn to the video of Omarosa speaking to PBS's Frontline in 2016 and you hear a woman who sounds like Ma Anand Sheela, the spokesperson for the 1980s cult leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Sheela was a highly visible Rajneeshi, speaking often on his behalf, until she fled to Europe after law enforcement broke up the cult. Similarly, Omarosa was a very public figure in the Trump campaign and White House and, prior to politics, boosted him over many years as a veteran of Trump's TV show, "The Apprentice."

In all seriousness, Omarosa declared on PBS, "Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It's everyone who's ever doubted Donald, whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him. It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe."

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