Trump reveals the real reason he hired Apprentice star Omarosa at the White House… and the quirk that got her fired

Former President Donald Trump said he hired Apprentice star Omarosa as a White House aide as an 'experiment' and fired her because everybody 'hated' her and she was 'late all the time.' 

In the forthcoming book, Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass, Variety's Co-Editor-in-Chief Ramin Setoodeh talked to Trump about Omarosa's White House dismissal for the first time. 

After three stints on The Apprentice and appearances on the 2016 campaign trail, Trump announced he was hiring the former reality star just weeks before his 2017 swearing-in - as assistant to the president and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison. 

She lasted until December - fired by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly over overuse of the White House car service, Politico reported, and other bad behavior, DailyMail.com chimed in.

Trump told Setoodeh the issues were even more broad. 

'I saw her very little in the White House. The White House is a very big place! It's buildings, actually. But the people hated her in Washington,' he said. 

'Her personality - she was late all the time. She wouldn't show up,' the ex-president continued. 'Look, I tried to rehabilitate her reputation as an experiment.' 

In a forthcomingn book about The Apprentice, now former President Donald Trump (left) talks about the rise and fall of his relationship with Omarosa (right), who appeared on the show three times and then was hired as a White House aide and fired 11 months later 

Omarosa is photographed in the White House briefing room in October 2017. Trump said he hired her as an 'experiment' and fired her because everybody 'hated' her and she was 'late all the time' 

'And when I did, I said, "This probably won't work out but let's see what happens,"' Trump added.  'And I also said... "When she gets fired, you always have to pay a price." It's too bad. In the White House, she didn't cut the mustard.'

Omarosa had worked in the White House before - under Democratic President Bill Clinton - but entered Trumpworld in 2004 as a contestant on season one of The Apprentice. 

Variety's Co-Editor-in-Chief Ramin Setoodeh book on The Apprentice will hit bookshelves on Tuesday 

'Omarosa was a major hit in her first year,' Trump told Setoodeh. 'Her anger, her craziness, it just worked so incredibly well.' 

When she was told 'you're fired' by Trump in March 2004, she told NBC's Chris Matthews that she had failed the challenge because she was suffering from a concussion incurred after hitting her head on a small chunk of plaster on set. 

Eric Trump thought this excuse was ridiculous, he told the book author. 

'Listen, Omarosa played the villain,' the middle Trump son said. 'We as a company know plaster extremely well. We're builders. A little drop of plaster landed on her shoulder, and she's walking around with ice packs, as if a high beam had dropped off the top of a building and hit her. Do I think she was hurt? No. But that was great entertainment.' 

The future president thought so too, bringing Omarosa back twice on The Apprentice in later seasons. 

'She was a great television personality the first time. And then I put her on a second time, and she bombed,' Trump recalled.

What was so successful the first time, Trump told Setoodeh, was that Omarosa 'didn't know just how big her arc was going to be,' the author wrote.

'The first time she was evil,' Trump said. 'The second time, she tried to be evil. And the third time, she tried even harder. And when you try, it doesn't work. Does that make sense?' the ex-president asked.

Even though she flopped, Trump decided to give her another chance - doing public outreach, especially to African-Americans.

'And then I helped her get a job at the White House because she was begging me to help restore her. So I figured, why not? I put her in,' Trump continued. 

The then president-elect said he always sensed that trouble was ahead. 

'I told people when we hired her, I said, "When we fire her, we'll have nothing but trouble."' 

'But that's OK. That's the way life goes,' Trump added.

Setoodeh asked Trump during his series of six interviews, all conducted after President Joe Biden was in office, why he would bring Omarosa into the White House if she couldn't be trusted. 

'A lot of things I do in life, I do as an experiment,' Trump answered. 'I mean, I do it out of human interest - just to see who's loyal, who's not loyal.' 

'She was actually really great to me, until she left,' he added. 

Then Republican nominee Donald Trump (left) whispers to Omarosa (right), an three-time alumna of his reality show The Apprentice, as they appear together at a campaign stop in Detroit, Michigan in September 2016 

Omarosa (right) is pictured in the White House briefing room in February 2017, a month into the Trump administration, alongside Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway (left) and Hope Hicks (center), the director of strategic communications 

News reports at the time of her firing say Omarosa was escorted off White House grounds when she tried to enter the residence to plead her case with the president - a story she denies. 

While some other ex-aides of Trump's have come back into the fold, that hasn't been the case with Omarosa. 

Trump still bristled over Omarosa's 2018 tell-all, Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House. 

'And then after she left, she got a book deal, and she made some money. They could all do that. But they are scumbags when they do,' the presumptive GOP nominee said. 'They don't pay, I guess, if you say nice things.' 

'I hear she lost that money,' Trump then alleged, without evidence.  

'I don't know - something happened. She had the whole thing with the husband too,' the ex-president also claimed. 'And the family. It was always drama.'

Omarosa's publicist did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment. 

Other efforts to contact the former White House aide were unsuccessful.