Trump on Terrorism: ‘Pretty Intense’
September 10, 2018On Monday, disgruntled former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman released two new tapes of conversations she secretly recorded during her time in the Trump administration. On the View, the former Apprentice contestant explained that the president would often crash various White House meetings and start "rambling from topic to topic." In one recording taken during a communications meeting on October 27, 2017, shortly after four American soldiers were killed in a terrorist attack in Niger, Trump can be heard rambling about the "rough business" of fighting terrorism.
"And now, on Niger. So, what happens is we’re decimated—you know, it’s a rough business. They’re rough too, they wanna kill us," he says.
Suggesting that the Islamic extremists fled to Niger because the US has "done a very good job" in the Middle East, the president then remarks, "So it's a rough uh, business. I wouldn’t, I don’t think I’d want to be a terrorist right now." In the background, Trump staffers are audibly laughing.
"It’s not a good life, but it’s uh, the only thing that," he continues. "What else is there? The reason they’re there, is because we forced them out, and it’s not nearly as many, it’s not nearly as intense, but it's pretty intense, you see that happening."
On NBC, Manigault Newman criticized the president and his staff for giggling about the deaths of four American soldiers, but also said that none of the staffers even had security clearance to talk about Niger.
"You have to question how seriously he takes the people who put their lives on the line for this country," Manigault Newman said. "When people say come forward and give us proof he's unfit, give us proof he's unhinged, here is it, Donald Trump raw, showing you just how unhinged, how inappropriate he is."
She also released a tape of Trump complaining about how Hillary Clinton's campaign had funded the infamous Steele dossier, and said that she wasn't the only White House staffer making recordings. Normal administration.
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