Did Omarosa Manigault Simply Resign? Or Was Longtime Trump Aide Escorted Out of White House While Screaming Vulgarities?

Director of Communications for the White House Public Liaison Office Omarosa Manigault listens during the daily press briefing at the White House, October 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Did Omarosa Manigault Simply Resign? Or Was Longtime Trump Aide Escorted Out of White House While Screaming Vulgarities?

One White House official said Omarosa is leaving because "all the racial incidents in the White House" were "starting to weigh on her."

No one ever really knew what Omarosa Manigault was doing in the White House in the first place, but it appears she won't be there for much longer--reports on Wednesday indicated that she will be leaving her vaguely-defined role as "communications director for the Office of Public Liaison."

The circumstances of Omarosa's departure, however, are unclear. According to some reports, the former "Apprentice" contestant and longtime confidant of President Donald Trump resigned quietly and of her own accord. Others insist that her exit was characterized by "high drama."

According to April Ryan, Washington bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks, Omarosa was fired on Tuesday by Chief of Staff John Kelly and--after an exchange of "vulgarities and curse words"--had to be "escorted out" of the White House by security. The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that Omarosa was "physically dragged and escorted off the campus."

The Trump administration has publicly disputed that account. In a statement on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Omarosa "resigned yesterday to pursue other opportunities," and that she will remain in her post until January 20.

The motivation behind Omarosa's departure is also in question. Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Timesreports that Omarosa is telling friends she quit because "her year anniversary was coming up."

But one White House official, speaking anonymously with Buzzfeed, claims that "all the racial incidents in the White House" were "starting to weigh on her."

Omarosa "grew increasingly fed up with how the administration handled racially-charged issues, adding that moving from crisis to crisis particularly drained the White House," Buzzfeed notes, citing the account of the administration official. "Manigault-Newman wanted to leave the White House after Charlottesville, where Trump sympathized with the white supremacists who marched to preserve confederate monuments, leading to the death of one counter-protester. Manigault-Newman went silent in the days and weeks after the rally."

The swirl of chaotic and conflicting accounts was viewed by some commentators as indicative of the truly unprecedented nature of the Trump White House.

Despite Trump's promise to hire only "the best people," Omarosa joins an already long list of administration officials who have been fired or resigned in the first year of his presidency, activist Jordan Uhl points out.

For others, though, Omarosa's exit was a great source of entertainment.

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