Former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman raised questions about claims the former president has made about his ancestry after Donald Trump suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris had only recently begun identifying as Black.
During a Wednesday appearance on CNN, Newman recalled that Trump identified as Swedish in his bestseller, The Art of the Deal, despite being of German and Scottish ancestry. Newman said that Trump didn't want to acknowledge his roots because he thought being Swedish "would play better to those who were patronizing his businesses."
Arguing that Trump would identify as Swedish, German and Irish "whenever it's convenient," Newman said: "Donald doesn't know the difference between ancestry and race. He doesn't want to know the differences, nor does he understand the nuances of how people self-identify."
Her remarks come after an explosive question-and-answer that Trump participated in at the National Association of Black Journalists's (NABJ) annual conference. During the discussion, Trump was asked whether he believed Harris was only at the top of the Democratic ticket because she is a Black woman, to which the former president suggested that Harris didn't know if she was Indian or Black.
Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother, notably attended a historically Black college and university, Howard University, where she was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first sorority established by Black college women in the U.S.
"She was always of Indian heritage, and she was always only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black," Trump said during the panel. "So, I don't know. Is she Indian or is she Black?"
"I respect either one, but she obviously doesn't," he continued about Harris' racial identities. "Because she was Indian all the way and all of a sudden she made a turn and she went—she became a Black person."
Contrasting those remarks to Trump's previous claims in his book, Newman asked: "When he says, 'Oh, at some point she identified as this, some point she identified as this,' are you going to hold Donald Trump to the fire for identifying himself as Swedish, even though he has no Swedish roots?"
Trump concealed his German heritage for decades, claiming instead that his family came from Scandinavia, which family historian John Walter has said was following in the footsteps of his father, Fred Trump, who did not acknowledge his German background to avoid upsetting Jewish friends and clients.
Newman became widely known after appearing on the first season of Trump's The Apprentice, and even though she had been a registered Democrat for over a decade, her relationship with Trump led the then-presidential candidate to name her as the director of African American outreach for his 2016 campaign. She would go onto join his White House staff in 2017 before being fired a year later.
Newman secretly taped her dismissal, which was later played on national television. It showed John Kelly, then-chief of staff, firing her over security concerns, but saying that she could face "pretty significant legal issues" if it was not a "friendly departure." Since leaving the White House, Newman has been outspoken about her criticisms of both Trump and his administration.
Newman also addressed Trump's mispronunciation of Harris' first name on Wednesday, saying that "he does it as a slur." The vice president has stated that Kamala is pronounced "COMMA-la." Trump has referred to her as "Kah-MAL-a" and did so again during his appearance at the NABJ conference.
"He does it intentionally to harm her, to make people see the otherness of Kamala Harris," Newman said.
