Omarosa Manigault Newman has been “spilling the tea” via airways and newspapers recently as she continues to leak information she has compiled during her time as a White House staffer and Donald Trump’s former protégé and reality star.
Manigault Newman, referred to in the media mostly by her first name, rose to prominence during the first season of The Apprentice, where she used aggressive and borderline backhanded tactics to attempt to get ahead. (She finished 8th). Most recently she served in the Trump administration as the Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison. A role which many felt, she was woefully underqualified for. Apparently, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly wasn’t happy with her performance either as CNN reported that he fired her. (A report Omarosa herself disputes.)
To make a long story short, in the least surprising turn of events ever, an ousted Omarosa reprised her role as a reality show villain and wrote a book titled Unhinged, in which she leaked information about her time under Trump.
Leaks from scorned, former employees should always be taken with a grain of salt, however, some of the anecdotes about Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos may be interesting to some people in the education community:
1. Omarosa claims Betsy DeVos said HBCU students lack the “capacity to understand” her agenda.
While giving a speech at Bethune-Cookman DeVos was booed mercilessly by the student body. After the speech DeVos allegedly told Omarosa:
“They don’t get it. They don’t have the capacity to understand what we’re trying to accomplish.”
2. According to Omarosa, Trump isn’t a fan of Betsy DeVos behind closed doors.
When Omarosa complained to President Trump about the trip, Trump allegedly called the Secretary of Education “Ditzy DeVos” and implied he would “get rid of her” very soon.
3. Omarosa says DeVos wants to replace public education with for-profit schools.
Betsy DeVos has frequently been accused of favoring private schools over public ones, but Omarosa takes it a step further and contends that DeVos wants to eliminate public education all together:
Her plan, in a nutshell, is to replace public education with for-profit schools. She believes it would be better for students, but the truth is, it’s about profit. She’s so fixated on her agenda, she can’t give any consideration to building our public schools, providing financing for them, particularly their infrastructure needs.
Omarosa is likely not the most reliable source but Betsy DeVos does have an unusually sorted history with HBCUs from just the short time she’s been in office. President Trump does frequently call rivals and people around him names and has been known to turn on people in his inner circle when he doesn’t think they are doing a good job. Omarosa is far from the first person to accuse Betsy DeVos of trying to push for-profit schools.
Omarosa’s claims can’t exactly be independently verified. They also don’t sound entirely out of the realm of possibility either given what we know and have seen for ourselves. A little skepticism is probably appropriate when dealing with leaks like this, but it’s not every day we get inside information from a former high-ranking White House official about the current administration…at least it didn’t use to be. One thing is for sure, these leaks if true are highly problematic.