A former White House aide to Donald Trump says it’s the ex-president’s “worst nightmare” to have his properties seized.
Omarosa Manigault Newman, a onetime “Apprentice” contestant, spoke to CNN’s Abby Phillip Wednesday about Trump’s looming deadline to put up a $464 million bond as he appeals his civil fraud conviction.
Trump has said he doesn’t have the money, and unsuccessfully petitioned last month to post $100 million instead. If he doesn’t pay up by Monday, his assets can be seized.
“He’s built his business on deceit and a house of cards. And as we can see, that house of cards is now going to collapse,” said Manigault Newman, who wrote a highly critical book about Trump after exiting her White House role in 2017.
“He’s asked to be treated differently than others who would be in this situation,” she added. “If it were you or I, we couldn’t go to the courts and say, ‘Look, we don’t have the money for our appeal, can you make some exceptions for us?’”
“But Donald Trump is expecting special treatment, special favors, because he believes that he is above the law. But in this case, he’s gonna have to pay, or he just will have his properties seized. And that is his worst nightmare.”
She said this episode will puncture the public persona Trump so carefully curated over the decades.
“From the first day of ‘The Apprentice,’ the story that was told to the audience was that Donald Trump was so extraordinarily wealthy,” she said. “And what we’ve learned from the producers is that this was an image that they actually helped to build.”
“But then he turns around and asks average Americans to send him money to help with his legal fees,” she continued.
“The truth of the matter is that, now, the curtain is gonna be pulled back and his supporters are going to see that what Donald Trump says about his wealth and about the money that he has? He simply does not have it.”
Facing behemoth legal debts linked to his civil litigation, Trump is also battling four criminal indictments tied to alleged falsification of business records, his handling of classified documents and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Watch the interview below.
