OMAROSA

“The Secret Service was not involved in the termination process of Ms Manigault Newman or the escort off of the complex. Our only involvement in this matter was to deactivate the individual’s pass which grants access to the complex.” So writes Omarosa, who happily admits, “I’m eternally grateful that the Secret Service had my back. Thank God they issued that statement, because things were getting crazy!”

             (UNHINGED/Omarosa/Gallery Books/NY/2018)

Describing her surprise call to the Situation Room to meet John Kelly, she found herself in a locked room, not allowed to leave, confronted by lawyers, falsely charged on trumped up charges that were no charges at all and she easily disproves, unequivocally fired, led off the premises without even being allowed to pack up her stuff or receive an explanation—she reports on her firing.

This beautiful young black girl that grew up in the poverty of Youngstown, Ohio’s post-steel era came from a good Baptist family, won a beauty contest and a college scholarship  and earned several degrees in journalism , communication, and business. She followed that by successfully pursuing the glitz and glamour of adult  life and  Reality TV. There she became well acquainted with Donald Trump, she ended up on his team, serving as his Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison, after helping elect him.

During this time, this beautiful, sturdy, steady, tough Black lady lost her husband in death and had an encounter in which she felt her Baptist Call to Ministry. I was prepared to like her and not ready to believe a Baptist Preacher would stoop to offer a falsely written book of sensation and intrigue. She had to be well-detailed to provide the story she has written, but I confess my ardor eventually cooled and I learned how controversial she was and how eventual book sales were disappointing.

Now that I have finished my reading;

I am (1) glad I read the book.

I am (2) questioning how she could figuratively prostitute herself, as she obviously did, and close her eyes and sell her shriveling soul to the Devil, then turn about face and reveal (describe) the things she does, many of which are contrary to the person she purposed to be. Her work was sufficiently convincing to get her idol elected to the most powerful office in the world.

 The time came when she could no longer gaze upon her idol and blindly ignore what was so obvious to other discerning individuals. Her turn-around seems to have begun with the Charlottesville struggle with White Supremacy:   “My blind spot was shattered during that press conference, though I could see with my own eyes that Trump had no idea what people were upset about. He just did not grasp it. He was disconnected from reality” (285).

The difference she would conclude, between Trump and world leaders who may be a tad bit narcissistic is  that “he can’t function unless everything is about him. He has to be at the center of everything. If he’s not in the middle of it, he’ll force himself in the middle. So, it’s not that a young woman died in the Charlottesville rioting, “it’s that her mother liked his (Trump’s) tweet” (287).

Most people who read this book are going to take one of two positions:

(1) They’re going to sort out all the anti-Trump and say, “There; I told you so!” This was my greatest temptation; I admit!

(2) Other readers are going to select all the pro-Trump nuances they can find and defend their support of The Donald.

I choose to take a different option by repeating the back cover that suggests “While watching that interview, I realized that something real and serious was going on in Donald’s brain. His mental decline could not be denied. Many didn’t notice it as keenly as I did because I knew him way back when. They thought Trump was being Trump, off the cuff. But I knew something wasn’t right.”

This is a statement of perceived fact given by one who arose out of Westlake slums in an impoverished Youngstown neighborhood where she withstood every kind of slight, abuse, and tragedy that a young black Baptist Christian could experience. Her statement comes out of twenty years of political experience where she cultivated a loyalty that blots out, diminishes, and diverts every weapon of imperfection thrown at her or her employer, and always shines the idealized spotlight of perceived perfection and is calculated to win whatever debate or election is at hand, whatever the personal cost.

She had proven her worth and ability already working for both Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Although she leaned to the left side of the political aisle, Donald Trump became her romanticized ideal of economic security when she made it into Reality TV and escaped the poverty she NEVER FORGOT. Mix it all together and you have the sad conclusion of a friend watching a beloved idol slowly diminish into a perceived slowly deteriorating meltdown.

Seeing her idol in this process drove home her own vulnerability, her misguided misdirection, and warped and wasted effort. That is a hard pill to swallow, especially someone that has been raised to honor God, live inclusively, and serve as an uplift in your world. Thus, she reveals much good and much bad about Donald Trump, depending on your political persuasion. She has written tactfully, accurately and correctively as a friend rather than an enemy; modestly without sensation; relieved to be free of the burden. The best of what anti-Trump readers will want to read is found in chapters 13-14.

When I read her take of the characters in Donald’s story, I am neither angry-at, dismayed-for, or disappointed-in, for we are all pretty much just who-and-what we are. That said, the political characters in this narrative are like most of us squirming about under the spotlight of public scrutiny—flawed human beings. 

I believe Omarosa is now in the right service--where she belongs. I don’t believe Donald Trump can pedal his tricycle fast enough to keep up with the Political Drama currently playing on the Washington Beltway stage, or in Moscow, or wherever else. The need is not for more or better politics but more and better “politicians”, people of honesty, integrity, humility, and cooperation. I am reminded of Old Testament Daniel (ch 9) when he hid himself in his place of prayer: “While I was speaking and praying … ‘confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God …’” 

The answer everyone wants is found in neither Republican nor Democrat answers but in putting aside our rights and wrongs and seeking the collective wisdom of the common good that frees all of us to allow “all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you (Ephesians 4:32 RSV).

Paul prefaced this with putting away falsehoods and speaking truthfully, being members one of another, giving honest effort and doing “only such as is edifying” i.e. building up one another of whatever color, creed, or culture. The present course of American politics is fundamentally cannibalistic; it is a strain of me-ism that allows only survival of the fittest; it is a suicidal, self-destroying cancer. I personally believe Jesus is the only resolution, but when I pray “Our Father…” I must-and-do allow “for others” into my circle and that includes y-o-u.

I had no idea where I was going when I started Omarosa, but here I am  and this is my take  on Omorosa … walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com