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Stephanie Grisham says she stayed at the Trump White House because her options were limited as 'a single mom with no trust fund': book

Oct 4, 2021, 17:58 IST
Business Insider
National Security Advisor John R. Bolton and White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham listen as President Donald J. Trump participates in a meeting at the White House on July 9, 2019. Jabin Botsford/Getty Images
  • In her coming memoir, Stephanie Grisham reportedly said she lacked alternatives to the White House.
  • "The Trumps were all I had. At least that was what I believed," she wrote, per The Washington Post.
  • Grisham resigned from her post following the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.
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After the 2019 Dayton, Ohio, shootings that left nine people dead and 27 people injured, President Donald Trump visited an intensive-care unit and became upset after press cameras failed to capture medical staffers giving him acclamation, the former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is said to have written in her coming memoir, "I'll Take Your Questions Now."

"What a waste," she quoted the president as saying, fixated on what he saw as a mishap.

In a section of the book that was published by The Washington Post as part of a review, Grisham also described facing Trump's ire after he saw criticism from local Democratic politicians on the news over his tweets.

"Why are you even on this plane? What do I have a whole team of people for if there is no one fucking defending me?" she recalled him telling her on Air Force One.

In the section published by The Post, Grisham explores how her relationship with Trump was akin to "the distant, erratic father we all wanted to please."

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Grisham, a veteran of the Trump administration at that point, reportedly wrote that she accepted the tough treatment because she didn't have many options.

"I was a single mom with no trust fund. If I had quit earlier, where would I have gone?" she wrote in the memoir. "The Trumps were all I had. At least that was what I believed for a long time."

While top staffers from most White House administrations have been able to forge high-profile roles in the private sector and academia, many former Trump staffers have had a difficult time finding employment.

The January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, however, galvanized the press secretary to finally leave the White House.

Grisham wrote that she texted the first lady, Melania Trump, on that day and asked whether she desired to speak out publicly against the riot, receiving the response "No."

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Grisham added, according to The Post, that she was broken by the response and that after a minute she texted the first lady and subsequently resigned as her chief of staff and press secretary.

The Post said the women had not spoken since that day.

Liz Harrington, a spokeswoman for the former president, told The Post last week that Grisham's memoir was "another pitiful attempt to cash in on the president's strength and sell lies about the Trump family."

Harrington went on to criticize Grisham as "a disgruntled former employee" and said publishers that had approved the wave of books critiquing the Trump administration "should be ashamed of themselves for preying on desperate people who see the short-term gain in writing a book full of falsehoods."

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