Donald Trump’s Sprawling Use of NDAs Now Threatens to Humiliate Him

For decades, Donald Trump has treasured Non-Disclosure and Non-Disparagement Agreements, using them to prevent staff and associates from divulging information about his political and corporate empires. But a recent court judgment has called into question just how iron-clad these agreements really are, potentially exposing Trump to many of the secrets he’s worked to keep private in all facets of his life.

Just last week, the Trump NDA regime suffered its most stinging defeat, with a New York arbitrator ruling against Trump in a case that his campaign had fought for three years.

The case stemmed from a 2018 lawsuit the campaign brought against former White House adviser and The Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman for her tell-all book, Unhinged. In a massive blow to Trump, the arbitrator ruled that the campaign’s NDA was too expansive and vague to enforce, ordering the campaign to reimburse Manigault for three years of legal fees.

The arbitrator, Andrew Brown, said in his decision that the campaign’s NDA went too far by forcing Manigault “to never say anything remotely critical of Mr. Trump, his family or his or his family members’ businesses for the rest of her life.” Brown ruled that “such a burden is certainly unreasonable.”

But this ruling is notable for far more than its implications for Omarosa. Namely, it could provide a precedent for MAGA defectors and other spurned associates who, intimidated by the vengefully litigious former president, have kept quiet about some of their inside knowledge.

“This is going to have a massive impact, and it’s because of the way Trump treats people when he’s done with them,” Omarosa Manigault told The Daily Beast on Sunday, pointing to public humiliations such as getting fired by tweet.

“I really do feel that folks who have been mistreated or embarrassed, who certainly have information to share will go, ‘Hmm—well they haven’t heard this story,’” Manigault said. “There were so many people in the room when he was doing things that were so clearly unlawful, unethical, unhinged—whatever ‘un-’ you want to use—especially people in the White House. It’s not because they’re unloyal or don’t care about the office or the country; it’s because of how he treated people.”

Miles Michael, who worked as an art director on Trump’s NBC reality series, The Apprentice, told The Daily Beast on Sunday that he felt empowered to talk publicly and on the record about his former boss, despite the NDA he and many other staffers had signed.

“Politics aside, the way he uses NDAs seems exorbitant,” Michael said. “I last signed one on The Apprentice probably [around] 2015. Why should people be stopped from talking about such a public figure based on an NDA that is ostensibly protecting a completely irrelevant TV show? But…