We told you last week about the bombshell book on the way from Melania Trump‘s former mouthpiece.
Stephanie Grisham was the First Lady’s spokeswoman from 2016 to 2020, almost her entire time in the White House. In 2019, she was named both the White House press secretary and the president’s communications director in addition to her ongoing role with the FLOTUS. Why? Well, she never gave a single press conference, so we’re guessing this was just Donald Trump filling yet another position with someone in the family, so to speak, rather than someone qualified.
[Make your own Jared Kushner joke here.]
At the time it probably seemed like the safe choice. After all, she’d been keeping Melania’s secrets for years at that point. So what happened between then and her decision to release a tell-all called I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw In The Trump White House??
Related: Melania Reportedly Does NOT Want To Ever Return To DC!
Oh, nothing much. Just an insurrection attempt in which Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try to overturn the election, killing multiple police officers along the way.
We already knew it was after the January 6 attack that Grisham finally left her post in disgust — after all, it was Trump who spurred on his most fervent fans by promoting the “Big Lie” that he had secretly won and then purposely holding a rally just down the block from the Capitol Building at the same time as the official vote count was being tallied. A great many blamed the POTUS for inciting violence even before more disturbing facts came to light.
But it was her other boss that “broke” her.
According to her book (in an excerpt from Politico), she texted Melania immediately that day, at 1:25 p.m. to put together a statement to release, asking:
“Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness and violence?”
After about one minute, the #BeBest campaign creator responded with a single word:
“No.”
No, she did not want to make a statement against the violence. No, she did not want to promote peace. No, she did not want to come out against the attacks at all.
Wow.
It was shortly after that text exchange that Grisham felt compelled to quit. After everything she had stood by and watched during the administration, this was the line. We guess she finally realized what so many (us included!) had been saying for years was true. Trump would burn this country to the ground if he could be king of the ashes. He and his wife were perfectly willing to throw out two centuries of a successful democracy to undo his loss.
Related: Capitol Rioters Intended To ‘Capture & Assassinate Elected Officials’, Say Feds
She writes that she was “shocked” to learn Melania agreed with her husband that the election was rigged. She had defended the former model from accusations she was a “Marie Antoinette”-type, out of touch, uncaring person. At this moment, she says, she realized Melania was like “the doomed French queen”:
“Dismissive. Defeated. Detached.”
Melania did finally issue a statement on the January 6 attack — five days later, on January 11. She said she was “disappointed and disheartened with what happened last week.” However, she made it clear what she really cared about was the slight against her made by former pal Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, saying in the same statement that she found it “shameful that surrounding these tragic events there has been salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me — from people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda.”
Yeesh. To now learn that she was being told to make the right kind of statement at the time and rejected it? Just awful.
Speaking of self-defense statements, Melania said about the new tell-all:
“The intent behind this book is obvious. It is an attempt to redeem herself after a poor performance as press secretary, failed personal relationships, and unprofessional behavior in the White House. Through mistruth and betrayal, she seeks to gain relevance and money at the expense of Mrs. Trump.”
“Failed personal relationships”??
Apparently she’s referring to the fact Grisham dated another former Trump aide named Max Miller that ended badly. Back in July, Politico sources reported the tryst “ended when he pushed her against a wall and slapped her in the face in his Washington apartment after she accused him of cheating on her.” Ugh.
Obviously making personal attacks is par for the course of the Trumps. It seems like every one of their former employees comes out with a nasty tell-all about their time with the family, and every time the response is the same: call the ex-staffer a liar, a grifter, a trash person, etc.
Funny thing about that defense? It means they’re admitting to hiring exclusively liars, grifters, and trash people.
Will this book be any different? Well, a source told People last week Grisham “knows where all the bodies are buried.” And publishing insider concurs, telling the outlet her time working for Donald was muy enlightening:
“Stephanie has secrets about Trump that even the first lady doesn’t know. Secrets that he doesn’t want her to know. They will be in this book.”
Oooh!
I’ll Take Your Questions Now is set to hit bookstores on October 5. Are YOU as intrigued to see what she has to say??
[Image via WENN/Avalon.]
The post Melania Trump's REAL Response To January 6 Attack 'Broke' Press Secretary — See What She Said! appeared first on Perez Hilton.