One of Donald Trump’s former press secretaries conceded Monday that it was a mistake to work for the ex-president and issued a warning to those who might consider voting for him if he runs again in 2024.


What You Need To Know

  • One of Donald Trump’s former press secretaries conceded Monday that it was a mistake to work for the ex-president and issued a warning to those who might consider voting for him if he runs again in 2024

  • Stephanie Grisham told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she also regrets enabling a culture of “casual dishonesty” in the White House

  • Grisham made the comments as she is promoting her book, “I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House,” which will be released Tuesday

  • In separate statements, Donald and Melania Trump attacked Grisham as being "bitter" and "deceitful"

In an interview with ABC’s "Good Morning America" on Monday, Stephanie Grisham said she also regrets enabling a culture of “casual dishonesty” in the White House. 

“Especially now watching him and so many people push the false election narrative, I now want to, in whatever way I can, educate the public about the behaviors within the White House because it does look like he's going to try to run in 2024,” Grisham said.

“I want to just warn people that once he takes office, if he were to win, he doesn't have to worry about reelection anymore,” she added. “He will be about revenge."

"He will probably have some pretty draconian policies that that go on," she claimed. "There were conversations a lot of times that people would say, ‘That'll be the second term. That'll be the second term,’ meaning we won't have to worry about a reelection.”

Grisham made the comments as she is promoting her book, “I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House,” which will be released Tuesday.

Grisham served as White House press secretary and communications director from July 2019 to April 2020. She is best known for never holding a news briefing during her time as press secretary, which she said was Trump’s wishes. 

She went on to serve as first lady Melania Trump’s chief of staff until shortly after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, when she announced her resignation, in part, she says, because she was frustrated Melania Trump did not issue a statement condemning the attack.

Grisham told “Good Morning America” that she joined Trump’s 2016 campaign as a “true believer and a true loyalist” and liked that he gave a voice to a lot of Americans who felt forgotten.

She initially joined the Trump administration as a deputy press secretary to Sean Spicer before eventually becoming the first lady’s press secretary. Grisham said that in the East Wing of the White House she was shielded from a lot of the “toxic nature of the West Wing.” 

“When I went to the West Wing is when I actually started to see what it was really like,” she said. “And I regretted that decision immediately.

“I think that many of us, myself included, got into that White House and got heady with power and … we didn't think about serving the country anymore. It was about surviving in there, and he (Trump) loved it. He loved the chaos.”

Other revelations from Grisham’s book, according to various reports, include that:

  • Trump refused anesthesia while undergoing a procedure believed to be a colonoscopy – Grisham did not name the procedure explicitly – at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in 2019 because, in her opinion, he didn’t want Vice President Mike Pence to bee in charge even briefly.

  • Trump privately told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in 2019 that he was "going to act a little tougher with you for a few minutes. But it’s for the cameras…You understand.”

  • Allegations that Trump had an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels “unleashed” Melania Trump to start publicly contradicting, ignoring and trying to embarrass her husband by walking arm-in-arm into Trump’s first State of the Union address with a handsome military aide. The first lady, however, never seemed devastated by the accusations.

In a statement last week, Trump said: “Stephanie didn’t have what it takes and that was obvious from the beginning. She became very angry and bitter after her break up and as time went on she was seldom relied upon, or even thought about. She had big problems and we felt that she should work out those problems for herself. Now, like everyone else, she gets paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things.”

Former first lady Melania Trump released her own statement Monday: "The author is desperately trying to rehabilitate her tarnished reputation by manipulating and distorting the truth about Mrs. Trump. Ms. Grisham is a deceitful and troubled individual who doesn't deserve anyone's trust."

Grisham said she anticipated the attacks from the Trumps.

“This is right out of their playbook,” she said. “When they don't like the message, they're going to destroy the messenger. I know I was part of doing that sometimes.”

She added that she doesn’t expect to be hailed as a hero for speaking out against Trump.

“The left doesn't like me; the right doesn't like me,” Grisham said. “But I have gone back to basics. And I have my family, and I have my friends, and people can take this book for what it is — it's honest. And that's that's all I can say.”