When Stephanie Grisham served as the chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump, and then as White House press secretary for President Donald Trump, she achieved the distinction of having never held a single press briefing. In the highest profile communications job on the planet, she was simply never available to field questions from anyone in the media. Now, Grisham has plenty to say to the world, and what she reveals in this memoir of her White House years does not paint a flattering picture of Trump, or of the members of his family.

Just when you thought that the cache of chronicles on Trump’s presidency and his flawed character couldn’t get any more explosive, another former White House insider has come out with a new tell-all expose. “I’ll Take Your Questions now” chronicles the terrifying temper tantrums, emotional melt-downs, lecherous ogling of attractive women half his age, pettiness on a grand scale and the epic arrogance and insatiable ego of the 45th president of the United States.

He often made inappropriate sexual comments about attractive young White House aides. With one such aide that drew Trump’s attention, she recalls how he was fixated on her, and how he once asked Grisham to bring her into his cabin aboard Air Force One so that he could, “look at her ***.” Additionally, Grisham recounts Trump’s inappropriate questions about her own boyfriend’s performance in bed. The author makes it crystal clear that this is a man who sees women as objects, and not as human beings.

From cover to cover, Grisham holds back nothing regarding her former boss. In an explosive indictment of Trump, she speaks with complete candor as to how he constantly abused, belittled and attacked members of his staff and encouraged to them to lie.

Grisham writes at length about the pervasive culture of lying that Trump fostered in the White House by saying, “Casual dishonesty filtered through the White House as if it were in the air conditioning system.”

Within the pages of this book, she reveals why she never gave a single press briefing saying, “I knew that sooner or later the president would want me to tell the public something that was not true or that would make me sound like a lunatic.”

Her memories of Trump and Putin together on the world stage are jaw-dropping. It was obvious that Trump took a subservient and lap-dog role to Russian President Vladimir Putin. She shares her recollection of the two leaders together at the 2019 Group of 20 Summit, and Trump bowing down to Putin saying to him, “OK, I’m going to act a little tougher with you for a few minutes, but it’s only for the cameras, and after they leave, we’ll talk. You understand.”

She characterizes Trump’s temper as “terrifying,” and writes, “When I began to see how his temper wasn’t just for shock value or for the camera, I began to regret my decision to go to the West Wing.”

Regarding Melania Trump, Grisham describes the former first lady as a Marie Antoinette-like figure who flat-out refused to condemn the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. On that momentous day, legions of violent Trump supporters stormed the building, desecrating the symbol of American democracy in their attempt to halt the certification of the 2020 election results and overthrow the decision of the American people.

Grisham shares with readers how she looked back at that freeze-frame moment in American history through the prism of being caught between the abusive leadership style of Trump and the personal loyalty that she had once felt toward the first lady. In the afternoon of Jan. 6, Grisham formally tendered her resignation only hours into the insurrection.

As for the first family itself, Grisham does not spare first daughter Ivanka or her husband, Jared Kushner. She recalls the former first lady expressing one of her most frequent complaint about Ivanka, “Princess always runs to her father.” The Kushners are repeatedly exposed throughout her narrative. “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.” She also shares her up-close observation that, “Jared and Ivanka thought they were the royal family of the United States; on the same level with William and Kate in the United Kingdom.”

Her job function brought her into close personal contact with the president on a daily basis. Her memories of his ego and his obsession with his looks are shocking. She writes that Trump’s hair “is much longer than I had imagined, like multiple inches from end to end. He cuts it himself with a pair of huge scissors that could probably cut a ribbon at an opening of one of his properties.” With respect to the distinctive orange hue of his face, she says that there was no tanning bed in the White House. “The president’s look was created with makeup that he put on his face every morning, as if he was going to be appearing on a TV show.”

This latest Trump tell-all book written by a White House insider is indeed an illuminating chronicle that shines a powerful light on the former president who appears to be a totally self-absorbed and deeply flawed man who seems to have no feeling, concern or compassion for anyone other than himself.

As is the case with the overwhelming majority of books that are critical of Trump, “I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House” has drawn the fury of the former commander in chief. He has publicly trashed the book as well as its author, in a deeply personal way. In one public statement, he has stated that Grisham, “was paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things.” Additionally, he said to CNN, “Too bad that sleaze bag publishers continue to report this very boring garbage. We and the MAGA movement are totally used to it, and someday in the not too distant future we will have our voice back, and be treated fairly by the press.”

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this memoir is that it leads one to the inescapable conclusion that it’s not always the case of Donald Trump always needing to win, but rather that his opponents must lose in a crushing and brutal way.

It surely took courage for the author to share what she saw during her years working at the Trump White House.

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FAST FACTS

TITLE

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

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AUTHOR

Stephanie Grisham

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PUBLISHER & LENGTH

Harper – 329 pages

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PRICE

$28.99

Paul Collins is a freelance writer from Southborough, Massachusetts.

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