Stephanie Grisham’s Book Details Trump’s ‘Terrifying’ Temper

WASHINGTON — Stephanie Grisham, the erstwhile Trump White House property caput possibly champion known for never holding a televised briefing with reporters, plans to merchandise a tell-all publication adjacent week that accuses President Donald J. Trump of abusing his staff, placating dictators similar Vladimir Putin of Russia, and making intersexual comments astir a young White House aide.

In her book, titled “I’ll Take Your Questions Now,” Ms. Grisham recalls her clip moving for a president she said perpetually berated her and made outlandish requests, including a request that she look earlier the property corps and re-enact a definite telephone with the Ukrainian president that led to Mr. Trump’s (first) impeachment, an duty she managed to avoid.

“I knew that sooner oregon aboriginal the president would privation maine to archer the nationalist thing that was not existent oregon that would marque maine dependable similar a lunatic,” Ms. Grisham writes, offering a crushed for wherefore she ne'er held a briefing.

After serving arsenic property secretary, Ms. Grisham worked successful Melania Trump’s office. She resigned connected Jan. 6 arsenic a horde of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol. Her publication was kept a concealed from her closest allies successful the White House, though by the clip she departed Washington that fig had dwindled. (She writes that, months earlier the election, she had moved to Kansas.) Her publisher, HarperCollins, calls the publication “The astir frank and intimate representation of the Trump White House yet.”

The erstwhile president has already moved to discredit Ms. Grisham's account, calling the publication “another pitiful effort to currency successful connected the president’s spot and merchantability lies astir the Trump family,” according to Liz Harrington, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump. “The small substance her publication has — if you tin marque it done juvenile gossip — flies successful the look of world and deserves nary superior recognition.”

In her book, Ms. Grisham offered a pre-emptive effect to the criticism: “This is not, by the way, a publication wherever you request to similar me.”

Here are immoderate highlights from the manuscript obtained by The New York Times:

A (fleetingly) pugnacious stance toward Putin is conscionable for show

Ms. Grisham lands connected a well-documented taxable erstwhile she explores Mr. Trump’s emotion of dictators. But she says Mr. Trump went retired of his mode to delight 1 successful particular: Mr. Putin, whose acold reception of Mr. Trump, she writes, seemed to marque the president privation to impressment him adjacent more.

“With each the speech of sanctions against Russia for interfering successful the 2016 predetermination and for assorted quality rights abuses, Trump told Putin, ‘Okay, I’m going to enactment a small tougher with you for a fewer minutes. But it’s for the cameras, and aft they permission we’ll talk. You understand,’” Ms. Grisham writes, recalling a gathering betwixt the 2 leaders during the Group of 20 acme successful Osaka successful 2019.

Ms. Grisham took notes during that gathering from Fiona Hill, Mr. Trump’s apical advisor connected Russia-turned-impeachment witness, who observed what she said were Mr. Putin’s subtle efforts to propulsion Mr. Trump disconnected guard.

“As the gathering began, Fiona Hill leaned implicit and asked maine if I had noticed Putin’s translator, who was a precise charismatic brunette pistillate with agelong hair, a beauteous face, and a fantastic figure,” Ms. Grisham writes. “She proceeded to archer maine that she suspected the pistillate had been selected by Putin specifically to distract our president.”

Sexist connection toward women

While helium was successful the White House, Mr. Trump’s targets included a young property adjutant whom Ms. Grisham says the president repeatedly invited up to his Air Force One cabin, including erstwhile to “look astatine her,” utilizing an expletive to picture her rear end. Mr. Trump, she writes, instructed her to beforehand the pistillate and “keep her happy.” Instead, Ms. Grisham tried to support her distant from the president.

During an Oval Office rant astir E. Jean Carroll, who has accused Mr. Trump of raping her successful the 1990s, Mr. Trump archetypal insults Ms. Carroll’s looks. Then helium gazes into Ms. Grisham eyes and says thing that unnerves her.

“‘You conscionable contradict it,’” helium told Ms. Grisham. ‘That’s what you bash successful each situation. Right, Stephanie? You conscionable contradict it,’ helium repeated, emphasizing the words.”

Melania Trump’s quiescent rebellion

Ms. Grisham besides confirms what she and Melania Trump had agelong denied: That the archetypal woman was aggravated aft respective reports of her husband’s infidelities — and hush wealth payments — surfaced successful the quality media.

To the contrary: “After the Stormy Daniels communicative broke and each the allegations that followed from different women,” Ms. Grisham writes, “I felt that Mrs. Trump was fundamentally unleashed.”

The archetypal lady, she says, recovered ways to omit her hubby from photos and tweets, and made it a constituent to amusement up connected the limb of a handsome subject aide. Mrs. Trump, who is closed disconnected to adjacent her closest aides, begins to unfastened up to Ms. Grisham, telling her that she doesn’t judge her husband’s denials oregon those from his erstwhile fixer, Michael Cohen — “Oh, please, are you kidding me?” she asks astatine 1 point. “I don’t judge immoderate of that,” the archetypal woman adds, utilizing an expletive. (This book, it should beryllium said, contains a batch of expletives.)

Ms. Grisham besides attempts to illuminate wherefore Mrs. Trump wore a jacket inscribed with the operation “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” to sojourn a Texas campy for kid migrants, but focuses much connected the president’s reaction: ““What the hellhole were you thinking?” helium asked Ms. Grisham and his woman successful the Oval Office, earlier instructing an adjutant to tweet retired a screen story: “You conscionable archer them you were talking to the” quality media, helium told the group.

The archetypal woman grew much disengaged implicit time, Ms. Grisham writes, to the constituent wherever she was dormant connected predetermination night. She was overseeing a photograph sprout of a rug connected Jan. 6 and declined to remark publically connected what has happening astatine the Capitol. (For Ms. Grisham, this was the past straw. She resigned aboriginal that day.)

In the end, the archetypal woman sided with her husband, doubting the predetermination results — “Something atrocious happened,” she told Ms. Grisham — and declined to invitation Jill Biden, the incoming archetypal lady, to the White House for tea.

“She would ever say, ‘Let maine deliberation astir it’ oregon ‘Let’s spot what the West Wing volition do,’” Ms. Grisham writes, “Which meant no. And erstwhile precisely did she determine to commencement pursuing the West Wing’s lead?”

Demands to evict the property from the White House

Ms. Grisham says that a travel to North Korea inspired Mr. Trump to inquire her to probe ways the property could beryllium permanently evicted from the James S. Brady Briefing Room.

“I researched antithetic places we could enactment them different than the property briefing room. Each clip the president asked maine astir my advancement connected the matter, I fto him cognize I was inactive moving connected options,” Ms. Grisham writes.

As she tries to delight Mr. Trump, whose property sum was relentlessly negative, she describes his choler toward her and others arsenic “terrifying”: “When I began to spot however his temper wasn’t conscionable for daze worth oregon the cameras,” she writes, “I began to regret my determination to spell to the West Wing.”

She says 1 predominant people of Mr. Trump’s ire was Pat Cipollone, who served arsenic White House counsel: “He didn’t similar them telling him that things helium wanted to bash were unethical oregon illegal. So he’d shriek astatine them. But past he’d usually listen. And past outcry astatine them again later.”

(There were different indignities: Ms. Grisham writes that Mr. Trump called her portion aboard Air Force One to support the size of his penis aft Ms. Daniels insulted it successful an interview. “Uh, yes sir,” Ms. Grisham replied.)

At 1 point, she writes, Mr. Trump’s handlers designated an unnamed White House authoritative known arsenic the “Music Man” to play him his favourite amusement tunes, including “Memory” from Cats, to propulsion him from the brink of rage. (The aide, it is revealed later, is Ms. Grisham’s ex-boyfriend. She does not place him, but it is Max Miller, a erstwhile White House authoritative present moving for Congress with Mr. Trump’s support.)

She was a close-up perceiver of Mr. Trump’s obsession with control, and details a country successful which the president undergoes a colonoscopy without anesthesia — though she doesn’t sanction the process — because, she reasons, adjacent temporarily assigning powerfulness to the vice president would person been “showing weakness.”

In the end, Ms. Grisham stood by arsenic three chiefs of staff, 2 property secretaries, and countless different aides resigned. She notes that Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, seemed to turn much powerful.

Ms. Trump, she said, made it a constituent to insert herself into meetings wherever she did not belong, including erstwhile she demanded that her begetter code the federation from the Oval Office during the aboriginal days of the pandemic. But Ms. Grisham reserves peculiar ire for Mr. Kushner, whom she calls “Rasputin successful a slim-fitting suit.” (At 1 point, Mr. Trump warns her not to get connected Mr. Kushner’s atrocious side.)

“The information was that beauteous overmuch everyone yet wore retired their invited with the president,” Ms. Grisham writes. “We were bottles of beverage with expiration dates.”

The erstwhile property caput adds, “I should person spoken up more.”