Donald Trump's ex-aide making divorce claims barely knew Melania Trump?

After the United States election results showed Donald Trump losing his bid for re-election to the White House, old claims made by an ex-aide that Melania Trump is "counting minutes" to divorce him also resurfaced.

Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former aide of Donald Trump, made claims about his marriage with Melania Trump in her 2018 book, "Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House." In the book, Newman claimed that the outgoing first lady was only waiting for her husband to lose elections so that she could divorce him, as leaving him while he was in the office could have had its repercussions.

"In my opinion, Melania is counting every minute until he is out of office and she can divorce him. If Melania were to try to pull the ultimate humiliation and leave him while he's in office, he would find a way to punish her," Newman wrote in her book.

The former "Apprentice" contestant even said that Donald Trump could potentially try to revoke the US citizenship of his wife who is a native of Slovenia. In a separate interview with TV host Lorraine Kelly last month, she claimed that Melania was sometimes "repulsed" by her husband.

"I'm very cautious to comment on the dynamics of a marriage because you never know what goes on behind closed doors. But I have known this couple since they were dating, they got married a year after The Apprentice aired. What I have observed in the last 17 years would make your head spin. Sometimes they like each other but sometimes she is repulsed by him," Newman said. She even claimed that Melania refusing to hold her husband's hand in public is her way of embarrassing him.

However, Newman's claims have been rejected by Melania's team who accused the former political aide of "lashing out" and insisted she barely even knew the first lady. According to The Sun, Melania's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said about Newman's book in August: "Mrs Trump rarely, if ever, interacted with Omarosa. It's disappointing to her that she is lashing out and retaliating in such a self-serving way, especially after all the opportunities given to her by the President."

Melania herself denied the claims made by Newman, calling her book "dishonest" and "full of idle gossip" in a White House blog. Donald also hit out at her on Twitter with harsh words, calling her a "dog" with "zero credibility." Press secretary Sarah Sanders insisted that her book "is riddled with lies and false accusations."