I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

by Stephanie Grisham

This is not a book, by the way, where you need to like me. I am not trying to win people over or gain moral absolution. But I do think this is something people need to read because I observed a truly unique, scary, bizarre, often funny, riotous, wild, and at times tragic period in our country’s history. I

He’d said that Trump “lacks the temperament to be president” and that “dishonesty is Donald Trump’s hallmark.” He’d called Trump “a con man” and “a fake.” And he, like many other #NeverTrumpers in the Republican Party, had condemned people who supported him or worked for him. Trump had responded as he always did with his usual bazooka blasts of insults: Romney was a “loser” and a “failure” and so on,

Trump always wanted to see how far you would go to do his bidding; it was his way of measuring your loyalty. And it was hard when you were caught in the middle of something like that to keep your bearings. I remembered that lesson when I took over as press secretary and resolved to do whatever I could to avoid having Trump do to me what he’d done to Sean. I wasn’t always successful, but I tried.

Because we had alienated so many of the “normal” Republicans in Washington, a lot of them were either unwilling to join the administration or were put on some do-not-hire list by someone in Trump World.

I loved it and was shocked at all of the similarities between President Trump and Norma Desmond, the lead character in the movie, who was a former silent-film star obsessed with her looks and with making a triumphant return to the screen. Here was a woman who was convinced that everyone loved her and lived in a fantasy world of her own making. I’m sure that Trump had no clue—like none—how similar to him she was.

And he said that the country was granting more liberties to women, which he supported. I looked at him as he said that with an expression that was captured in a White House photo by an Associated Press reporter. It was a look of “I don’t know if I believe you, dude.” But he seemed sincere, and I wanted to believe him. Still, what did I know? Saudi Arabia is a savage place for women.

It was my first direct glimpse of what would become the constant issue of “Javanka” blurring the lines between staff and family and wanting whatever suited them best at the time. It seemed to me that whenever it suited her, Ivanka wanted to be treated as a senior staff expert on whatever issue caught her attention and resented being dismissed as the president’s daughter. At other times, she’d want just the opposite.

At that point on the trip, I was starting to get as fed up with her behavior as the rest of the East Wing team was. Ivanka was constantly getting into the press shots that truly should have been reserved for the president and first lady. It was yet another example of the Kushners putting themselves on the same level as the first couple, and it was unseemly. For Mrs. Trump, it was about protocol and the rules; for all of us as staff, it was about allowing her to be in her role and have the people of the United States see her representing them with dignity and class.

Working for Trump, we were in a constant battle for survival against his opponents, against investigations, and against most of the press. This was our story now, and it didn’t really matter if it wasn’t true. Casual dishonesty filtered through the White House as though it were in the air-conditioning system. All

In fact, this book may be the first and only time anyone has told President Trump that a corpse and a dog flew inside Air Force One, at the same time, on his watch.

And less than a week after General Kelly resigned, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis resigned with a scorching letter to the president that got a ton of attention. So now we’d have a second defense secretary in two years. But that was a whole other drama that I wasn’t really in on.

For a communications person, especially if you actually like politics, White House press secretary is the pinnacle of your profession. In any other administration, if you reach that milestone, you were pretty much guaranteed a lucrative job at a large company, in addition to TV contributor contracts, and speaking engagements once the administration went out. But the Trump White House was different—which may be the biggest understatement ever written.

When we traveled to Davos, Trump marveled about the country of Switzerland, which was clean, orderly, and full of rich people—very much his kind of scene. President Germophobe gushed to Swiss president Ueli Maurer, “Everything here is so clean. My hotel room is spotless.”

An address to the nation is serious stuff, and whenever possible you need plenty of time to prepare properly—unless, of course, you were in the Trump White House, where everything was like a clown car on fire running at full speed into a warehouse full of fireworks. A

LMAO

I had shared with Mrs. Trump many times my opinion that if we lost reelection in 2020 it would be because of Jared. She didn’t disagree with me. It was my fervent opinion that his arrogance and presumption had grown over the years, and he threw his power about with absolutely no shame. I would venture to say that being in the White House changed Jared as a person. There was no reason that he should be sitting with the speechwriter laying out our nation’s plan to fight a global pandemic.

Jared, who had appointed himself the expert on every problem—from the border wall to trade policy to an unprecedented global pandemic—suddenly claimed that he’d had nothing to do with the mess that was made. I cannot believe I ever found the guy attractive, sincere, or kind. By

That was how Trump always got rid of people—behind their back with leaks to the press or on Twitter.

I also turned a blind eye toward my own falling into a trap I saw over and over again: believing I was a trusted and valued member of Trump World. The plain truth is that most of the Trump family dismisses and cuts people from their lives on a whim. They demand total loyalty, but they are loyal to no one. I don’t blame them, to be honest.