What did Omarosa Manigault say about Trump's hygiene habits?
Executive summary
Omarosa Manigault Newman accused Donald Trump of specific personal habits in her book and subsequent interviews, saying he used a tanning bed every morning, guzzled multiple cans of Diet Coke daily and had “terrible health habits” that affected his fitness for office [1] [2] [3]. Those claims were amplified by news outlets and met with pushback and denials on other topics in her book, while much of what she reported about Trump’s health and behavior remains unverified in the public record [2] [4].
1. The core hygiene and appearance claims: daily tanning and Diet Coke
Omarosa’s most consistent, repeatable assertions about Trump’s personal routine centered on his appearance regimen and beverage consumption: she wrote that he used a tanning bed every morning so he “looks good” all day and alleged he drank at least eight cans of Diet Coke per day, a pair of claims that multiple outlets summarized when reporting highlights from her book Unhinged and later interviews [1] [2] [4].
2. Framing the claims as part of a broader critique of health and fitness
She placed those habits within a larger narrative about Trump’s physical condition, describing him as “clearly obese” and asserting that his “terrible health habits have caught up with him,” thereby suggesting the tanning and soda consumption were symptoms of broader, consequential health questions rather than merely cosmetic details [1] [3].
3. How the reporting treated these allegations: repetition, sourcing and limits
Major celebrity and political outlets repeated Omarosa’s accounts, often presenting the tanning-bed and Diet Coke anecdotes as part of a list of bombshells from her book; People, Us Weekly and The Independent ran direct summaries of those specific claims, but their treatment largely relayed Omarosa’s assertions rather than independently corroborating them [1] [4] [3]. That pattern—republication of a former aide’s memoir claims without on-the-record confirmation—leaves these particular hygiene allegations as reported claims, not established facts, in the public domain [1] [2].
4. Pushback and credibility contexts reported alongside the claims
Omarosa’s larger set of allegations generated official denials and skepticism on other topics in her book, and some named figures publicly rejected her reporting; for instance, reporting around her book noted disputes over other sensational claims and highlighted that critics, including figures she cited as sources, denied the accounts [2]. Media coverage also recounted that the Trump team accused her of breaching nondisclosure agreements, signaling an adversarial context that shapes how her claims were received and amplified [4].
5. What Omarosa said beyond hygiene: doctors, medical records and fitness for office
Beyond tanning and soda, Omarosa alleged that Trump’s doctors were managed to present a particular narrative and that his health status warranted transparency before any future campaigns—comments she reiterated on TV, saying he should “come clean” about his health and even suggesting he might not be healthy enough to run [5] [6]. Those statements expand her hygiene anecdotes into claims about medical oversight and political fitness, areas that reporters noted are serious yet remain allegations without public medical documentation provided by her sources [5] [6].
6. Bottom line and unanswered questions
The record based on Omarosa’s book and interviews shows specific, repeated allegations that Trump used a tanning bed daily and drank copious Diet Coke, coupled with broader claims about his health and how it was presented to the public; major outlets reported these claims but did not independently verify them, and surrounding coverage emphasized disputes and denials on other, related sensational allegations—meaning the tanning-bed and soda anecdotes should be read as reported assertions from a former aide with clear adversarial motives toward the subject, not independently substantiated medical facts [1] [2] [4] [3] [6].