Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former "Apprentice" contestant who became a White House aide, says in her new book that President Donald Trump is a "racist" who used the N-word — and tried to silence her with money and legal threats.
In her upcoming tell-all book entitled "Unhinged," to be published next week and obtained by NBC News directly from the publisher, Newman alleges that Trump was caught on a microphone saying the N-word "multiple times" during the filming of "The Apprentice," and says there is a tape to prove her allegation.
Newman wrote that she did not hear Trump use the slur, nor has she listened to the alleged tape. She cites three sources as having told her of the existence of the tape and what Trump says on it.
The Guardian first reported Friday on the quotes in the book and said it had obtained a copy.
In the book, she also describes her "growing realization that Donald Trump was indeed a racist, a bigot and a misogynist," during her time in the White House.
"My certainty about the N-word tape and his frequent uses of that word were the top of a high mountain of truly appalling things I’d experienced with him, during the last two years in particular," Newman writes.
Newman, who NBC News reported was dismissed from her White House role, wrote, "It had finally sunk in that the person I'd thought I'd known so well for so long was actually a racist. Using the N-word was not just the way he talks but, more disturbing, it was how he thought of me and African-Americans as a whole." She says she left the White House job on her own.
In a statement on Friday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders blasted Newman's claims as "lies" and called her "disgruntled former White House employee."
“Instead of telling the truth about all the good President Trump and his administration are doing to make America safe and prosperous, this book is riddled with lies and false accusations," Sanders said. "It's sad that a disgruntled former White House employee is trying to profit off these false attacks, and even worse that the media would now give her a platform, after not taking her seriously when she had only positive things to say about the president during her time in the administration."
On Saturday, while hosting Bikers for Trump and other supporters in Bedminster, New Jersey, the president responded to a question about his thoughts on Newman.
"Lowlife," Trump said. "She's a lowlife."
Newman further claims the White House tried to buy her silence after she left. She asserts in the book that within 24 hours of her departure, Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law, emailed her a contract to work on the president's re-election campaign for $15,000 per month.
The contract, Newman wrote, came with a nondisclosure agreement attached that was "as harsh and restrictive as any I’d seen in all my years of television."
"It said that I was forbidden from ever talking about the entire Trump family or the entire Pence family, to anyone in the universe, for all of eternity," she writes. "I declined the offer. I was done with Trumpworld."
She added, "However, they were not done yet with me. Two days later, I got a flurry of letters from attorneys representing the president of the United States imploring me to stay silent about Trump, or else."
Newman also claimed in the book that she worried about Trump's mental decline, particularly during his sit-down interview with NBC's Lester Holt in May 2017. She described the dread she felt watching the interview and asserted in the book that Trump contradicted himself and spoke nonsense.
"Throughout this erratic and contradictory interview, I kept thinking, 'Oh no! Oh no! This is bad!'" she writes in the book, which was first reported by The Daily Mail earlier this month. "Donald rambled. He spoke gibberish. He contradicted himself from one sentence to the next."
During the interview, Trump was asked about his firing of then-FBI Director James Comey. Newman alleges that then-White House communications director Hope Hicks had gone over talking points with him "a dozen times" to say that he had fired Comey based on the recommendation by the Justice Department. But Trump said during the interview that he considered "the Russia thing" when he fired Comey.
"While watching the interview I realized that something real and serious was going on in Donald's brain. His mental decline could not be denied," she writes. "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."
She added, "But I knew something wasn't right."
Trump hosted the reality television show "The Apprentice" and its spin-off, "The Celebrity Apprentice," both of which aired on NBC, from 2004 to 2015 before running for president. "Celebrity Apprentice" was produced and owned by MGM.
Newman was a three-time contestant on "The Apprentice" and over time became a close confidant of Trump before supporting him for president and following him to the White House. During his campaign, she was one of his most prominent black supporters.
Earlier this week, The Daily Beast reported that she also secretly recorded conversations with the president and used that as leverage to get her book deal.
The rumor that Trump used the N-word and other offensive language over the course of filming his TV show has been floated since Trump was a candidate on the campaign trail. Comedian Tom Arnold previously claimed to have knowledge of tapes that purportedly show the president using the disparaging remark and other vulgar language in outtakes of "The Apprentice."
In the book, Manigault also alleges she witnessed Trump using derogatory terms for Filipinos when talking about George Conway, who is half Filipino and the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.
"Would you look at this George Conway article?" she quotes the president as saying, but did not specify which article angered the president. "F**ing FLIP! Disloyal! F---ing Goo-goo." Flip and goo goo are considered slurs.
Conway, whose Twitter feed has been profiled by news outlets because it appears to sometimes criticize the president and his policies, called her claim "absurd" in a tweet on Friday.
"The allegation is not credible, and indeed is ridiculous, particularly in light of the timing of her departure from the White House — December 12, 2017. It's absurd all around," he tweeted.
He later clarified in another tweeted that although he tweeted in June 2017 about the president's travel ban while Newman was still employed at the White House, the president did not hold animosity against him and that it was "preposterous" that the president would use those slurs.
"No. There was one tweet, it didn't criticize the travel ban, and it was clear at the time from my and others' personal interactions with him that he didn’t hold it against me — not one bit," Conway tweeted. "From what I saw and heard, any suggestion he would have used such slurs is preposterous."
Tune in Sunday for Omarosa’s exclusive interview with Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press" — then tune in Monday starting at 8 a.m. for her interview on "Today."