Takeaways from Trump aide’s account of chaotic White House

NEW YORK — Ferocious tantrums. Stephanie Grisham, once a White House press secretary and chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump, is out with a book next week that paints a deeply unflattering picture of Donald Trump — a man with a “terrifying” temper who ogled a young aide and tried to impress dictators while president, she writes. She writes that “literally one minute later and while she was preparing a photo shoot of a new rug she had selected — yes, you read that right — Melania Trump sent me back a one-word response: ‘No.’” It was a breaking point for Grisham, who both praises the former first lady’s off-camera temperament and offers insight into her peculiarities. “He didn’t like them telling him that things he wanted to do were unethical or illegal.” Staff, she recounts, often deceived Trump to avoid his wrath, and tried to temper his worst impulses by stalling or distracting in a White House “where everything was like a clown car on fire running at full speed into a warehouse full of fireworks.” #METOO Grisham writes that, while serving as press secretary, she noticed Trump “taking an unusual interest in a young, highly attractive press wrangler” on her team, asking where the woman was, whether she would be traveling with him on foreign trips, and asking Grisham to bring the aide to his office cabin on Air Force One. ON HER ROLE One reason, Grisham writes, that she didn’t want to hold formal press briefings was that she 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.” Indeed, at one point, she says, Trump asked her to reenact his “perfect phone call” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which led to his first impeachment, and “use two voices” on the briefing room “stage.” She writes that Trump also asked her constantly whether the press could be removed from the White House.