There’s a word White House staffers use to describe Omarosa Manigault, “The Apprentice” contestant-turned-presidential aide: blessed.

When she landed her own conference room in the D.C. transition offices, that was blessed.


When she was named to a newly created position with a senior title — assistant to the president and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison — that was blessed, too.

And when the president himself held a chair for her, allowing her to take the seat next to him at a Black History Month event last month, that was definitely blessed. “Can you imagine the president of the United States pulling out a chair for an aide?” said one consultant close to the White House.

The president is known for being intensely devoted to people who were with him early in his unlikely campaign, but Manigault is a rarity among even that select group.

Unlike other Trump staffers, she was a minor celebrity in her own right before joining his campaign — though she owes her fame to Trump, who cast her in the first season of “The Apprentice” in 2004. She became a walking one-name synonym for office backstabbing, dubbed one of the nastiest TV villains of all time by TV Guide.

The Omarosa phenomenon helped make the show a hit, giving Trump a springboard crucial to, ultimately, winning the presidency. “Nobody is going to challenge Omarosa,” said a former transition official. “She has a preexisting relationship with the president, and that has its own privileges.”

In interviews with 10 of her current and former colleagues, Manigault was described as the most assertive and demanding of the small number of longtime loyalists crowded around Trump. Manigault declined to comment for this story.

On the campaign trail, Manigault’s take-no-prisoners attitude was seen as an asset that was hard to replicate. “She's a street fighter in its truest form, period,” said Bryan Lanza, who was a deputy communications director on the Trump campaign. “Strong women are often misunderstood, but you want them on your side. She made my job easier because she was willing to do the tough assignments on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump.”

Now, in the White House, fellow staffers kowtow to Manigault’s quirks and demands. “You’ve gotta learn how to deal with her,” said the former transition official.

In her first week on the job, she took over an office designated for fundraiser Anthony Scaramucci in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building — in one telling because she wanted Scaramucci to have the bigger space she’d been assigned, in another because his smaller office had a better view of the Washington Monument. The White House personnel office got involved in resolving the dispute, and it sent an email, seen by POLITICO, instructing Manigault to remove her items and return to her assigned space, which she did.

Last month, she had a brushup with veteran White House correspondent April Ryan. The Washington Post reported that Manigault told the journalist that the White House had a dossier of negative information on her. Manigault subsequently denied Ryan’s account, describing it as “fake news.”

Manigault is one of the very few people in Trump’s administration to have previously worked in the White House, albeit in a junior capacity as a scheduling assistant in Vice President Al Gore’s office in the late 1990s. “I went from the projects to the White House. How successful is that? You don't sit with the president of the United States if you're not successful again and again and again,” she said in 2004 on “The Apprentice,” where she finished in eighth place.

Today, Manigault likes to brag about her Oval Office walk-in privileges. She’s routinely seen at news conferences and stakeouts.

One person close to Manigault says she relishes her position as the most prominent African-American woman in the administration. Yet some black Trump supporters said they’ve been surprised at the absence of contact from Manigault, whose duties include communications and outreach to minority communities.

“There’s a sentiment outside that there’s been exclusion rather than inclusion,” said former Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Sandra Carroll, a Trinidadian-born Republican who acted as a surrogate for Trump during the campaign and transition.

Manigault’s highest-profile assignment has been her trip to Haiti in early February to attend the inauguration of President Jovenel Moïse, the first foreign delegation trip of the Trump administration. Thomas Shannon, a career diplomat who was then the acting secretary of state, led the trip, along with two other career State Department officials — but it was Manigault who went representing the White House.

View Omarosa's relationship with Trump A look at Omarosa Manigault's relationship with President Donald Trump.

“It was a bit of a shock,” said James Brewster, who served as ambassador to the neighboring Dominican Republic under President Barack Obama. “When you send someone especially to the inauguration of a new president, you want to send someone of the highest level to show the commitment to the relationship.”

Others say Manigault is a perfect emissary for Trump.

“She’s a firebrand; that’s the right way to describe her with affection and admiration,” said Susie Wiles, who was Trump’s campaign director for Florida. “She believes in something, she’s willing to stand up and be accountable, and I find that to be a really rare quality.”

Ken Vogel contributed to this report.