Former Apprentice contestant to join Trump White House staff
Omarosa Manigault, best known for appearing multiple times on The Apprentice franchise and parlaying that exposure into more reality show gigs, will serve as public liaison in Donald Trump's White House, a transition official said.
During the campaign, Manigault was Trump's director of African-American Outreach, and she is now part of his transition team's executive committee. Manigault has worked in Washington before — she served in the office of Vice President Al Gore — but in recent years, she's become famous for her stints on the first season of The Apprentice (during which she was labeled a villain), its sequels The Celebrity Apprentice (where she feuded with Piers Morgan) and The Celebrity Apprentice: All Stars (this time she threatened to sue a "demented" La Toya Jackson), and The Surreal Life, Fear Factor, and Girls Behaving Badly.
A transition official told ABC News Manigault actually wanted to be the ambassador to Haiti, as she has done missionary work in the country. Trump fired her in week nine of The Apprentice, week 10 of The Celebrity Apprentice, and week five of The Celebrity Apprentice: All Stars, so best wishes to Manigault this time around.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
The vast horizons of the Puna de AtacamaThe Week Recommends The ‘dramatic and surreal’ landscape features volcanoes, fumaroles and salt flats
-
Asylum hotels: everything you need to knowThe Explainer Using hotels to house asylum seekers has proved extremely unpopular. Why, and what can the government do about it?
-
Crossword: November 16, 2025The daily crossword from The Week
-
Trump DOJ sues to block California redistrictingSpeed Read California’s new congressional map was drawn by Democrats to flip Republican-held House seats
-
GOP retreats from shutdown deal payout provisionSpeed Read Senators are distancing themselves from a controversial provision in the new government funding package
-
Catholic bishops rebuke Trump on immigrationSpeed Read ‘We feel compelled’ to ‘raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity,’ the bishops said
-
House releases Epstein emails referencing TrumpSpeed Read The emails suggest Trump knew more about Epstein’s sex trafficking of underage women than he has claimed
-
Newsom slams Trump’s climate denial at COP30speed read Trump, who has called climate change a ‘hoax,’ declined to send any officials to this week’s summit
-
UK, Colombia halt intel to US over boat attacksSpeed Read Both countries have suspended intelligence sharing with the US over the bombing of civilian boats suspected of drug smuggling
-
Trump pardons 2020 fake electors, other GOP alliesSpeed Read The president pardoned Rudy Giuliani and more who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss
-
Supreme Court to decide on mail-in ballot limitsSpeed Read The court will determine whether states can count mail-in ballots received after Election Day
