The director of communications for Donald Trump’s Office of Public Liaison has said she has a “good relationship” with one of America’s most notorious antisemites, and “would look forward to sitting down with him.”

Omarosa Manigault, a former participant in Mr Trump’s Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice TV shows, was speaking about Louis Farrakhan, leader of the black supremacist Nation of Islam group, who has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Centre as “an antisemite who routinely accuses Jews of manipulating the US government and controlling the levers of world power”.

Mr Farrakhan has accused Jews of being behind 9/11, and has made numerous comments over the years about Jews controlling the media and other professions. For example, in a 2012 speech he said: “Jews control the media. They said it themselves…In Washington right next to the Holocaust museum is the Federal Reserve where they print the money. Is that an accident?”

Last year Mr Farrakhan praised Mr Trump for being, in his words, the only Presidential candidate “who has stood in front of the Jewish community and said, 'I don’t want your money’.”

Ms Manigault made her comments during an interview on Thursday with WVON, a Chicago-based talk radio station, saying: “I think any of your audience would know that I've never shied away from having an open, and I believe a good, relationship with Louis Farrakhan.

“I would look forward to receiving that invitation and sitting down with him."

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, condemned Ms Manigault’s comments.

“Louis Farrakhan should not be made to feel welcome by anyone in the White House,” he said.

“Such an overture would only serve to legitimize his long record of conspiratorial and hateful views toward Jews.

“We hope that the administration will make it clear that Farrakhan and his antisemitic organization will find no supporters in the White House.”