'Let's talk when they leave': former Trump spokesman claims he was harsh with Putin only on cameras

The 45th US President Donald Trump behaved harshly with Russian President Vladimir Putin only when there were cameras around. A new book by a former Trump spokesman details his impartial actions that allegedly took place. The Washington Post.

Photo: Shutterstock

Little is known about what happened during the 90-minute conversation between Trump and Putin in Osaka, Japan, two years ago. But when journalists were quickly escorted out of the 20 G-2019 summit, Stephanie Grisham, then Trump's press secretary, said she saw a "close-up."

On that day, she saw Trump supposedly leaning towards Putin and telling him, “I'm going to be a little tough with you for a few minutes. But this is for the cameras, and when they leave, we'll talk. You understand".

This is just one of many showcase performances by the 45th U.S. chapter detailed by Grisham in her new book, Now I'll Answer Your Questions. She is one of Trump's most senior and longest-serving advisers, having served as the president's third press secretary, first lady Melania Trump's chief of staff and communications director before resigning on Jan. 6, 2021, following the Capitol riot.

Her 352-page book, obtained by The Washington Post, recounts a range of misconduct by the 45th president, from glaring at a young employee to organizing lies for the public and trying to ban some media outlets from entering the White House. The book also provides a look at Melania Trump, who purportedly craved privacy.

Grisham even claims to be aware of Trump's "dirty linen", and according to her, Trump "cut himself with huge scissors, which probably cut the ribbon at the opening of one of his projects."

The Trump reaction

"The purpose of this book is clear," Melania Trump's office said in a statement following the leak of an excerpt comparing the former first lady to Marie Antoinette.

“This is an attempt to atone for the press secretary's poor performance, failed personal relationships and unprofessional behavior in the White House. Through lies and betrayal, she seeks to gain fame and money at the expense of Ms. Trump,” the office added.

Donald Trump responded to the book in the same spirit. “This book is yet another pathetic attempt to profit from the president’s power and sell lies about the Trump family,” Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington said. She called Grisham a "disgruntled former employee" and said publishers "should be ashamed of themselves for preying on desperate people who see short-term gain in writing a book full of lies."

As a press secretary, Grisham was often irresponsible and never briefed. Former colleagues said she had been in the office on an irregular basis over the past year at the White House when she contracted the coronavirus while serving as a spokesperson at the start of the pandemic and then took over as chief of staff for the first lady.

But Grisham is undoubtedly one of Trump's men. She argued frequently with reporters during the 2016 campaign before breaking into the Trump inner circle. And she is still considered an insider in the Trump administration.

Meeting with Putin

According to Grisham, Putin appears to have been trying to kick Trump out of the Osaka game. She writes that Fiona Hill, the White House's top adviser on Russia, told her that Putin brought an unusually attractive female translator to their meeting, whose presence seemed to be a distraction for the President of the United States.

Putin also appeared to be coughing and clearing his throat unreasonably throughout the meeting. Hill suggested that he was probably trying to provoke Trump's well-known microbial phobia, Grisham writes.

Lies in the White House

The book's main theme is the culture of lies that allegedly permeated the Trump administration.

“Everyday dishonesty permeated the White House as if it were an air conditioning system,” Grisham writes.

For example, in 2019, Trump went to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center without telling the media where he was going or why. This remained a mystery on national news for days, but Grisham's book strongly suggests that the president underwent a simple colonoscopy procedure (however, this word is not used in the book). Grisham wrote that it is "a very common procedure" that "patients are sometimes subjected to," and that George W. Bush also had such a procedure when he was president.

As for the elaborate cover-up, Grisham writes that Trump performed a colonoscopy without general anesthesia because he didn't want Vice President Mike Pence in office for even a short period of time. And he didn't want to be the butt of the joke on television.

Grisham writes that Trump could use the power of his office to demystify his colonoscopy procedure and save lives. “But, as with Covid, he was too consumed by his own ego and his delusions of invincibility,” the author writes.

Grisham believes that the crises in the White House have been linked to both incompetence and dishonesty.

She offers a new interpretation of the infamous September 2019 incident. It all started when Trump refused to believe the news that Hurricane Dorian had changed course and was no longer predicted to strike Alabama, she said. To prove his point, Grisham writes, the president grabbed a marker during a staff meeting and drew a hurricane on a weather map, altering its course to show how it reached the state.

Then someone led the journalists into the room, forgetting that the edited map was still on display. Trump continued to point to the map as he spoke to reporters, giving the impression that he was deliberately misleading them.

Sometimes employees even lied to Trump. When President George W. Bush died, staff orchestrated the use of Air Force One for the former president's family, as is customary, but withheld much of the details from Trump for fear of his reaction. The plane was used to transport Bush's service dog Sally, his family and his coffin to the funeral.

On the subject: In the United States, the cost of living will grow strongly: because of this, pensions and social benefits will increase

“We knew he would not agree to this, even if it was a short trip,” Grisham writes. “Dead bodies, death, disease - all of this seemed to really frighten him.” He also, according to her, was not a fan of the Bushes and even vice versa.

Grisham claims Trump was obsessed with a young female press assistant, whose name is not mentioned in the book. Grisham wrote that the president constantly asked where the assistant was during press events, and allegedly once asked to be brought to his cockpit on Air Force One so that he could "look at her [from behind]."

She wrote that Trump also behaved inappropriately with her, once calling her from Air Force One to assure her that his penis was not small or shaped like a toadstool, as porn star Stormy Daniels said in an interview. Grisham wrote that Trump once asked her then-boyfriend, a Trump aide, if she was good in bed.

She speaks especially negatively about the president's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, who held leadership positions in the White House. She wrote that the first lady and White House staff called Ivanka "princess" who regularly called out to "my father" at work meetings. Grisham called Kushner “the Slim Reaper” for his habit of interfering with other people's projects, creating clutter and abandoning them so as not to take the blame.

Tellingly, Grisham writes that Ivanka and Jared tried to sneak into a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II along with the president and first lady. This is a gross violation of protocol during a state visit, but they failed - they could not fit into the helicopter. “I finally understood what was happening,” Grisham writes. “Jared and Ivanka thought they were royalty in the United States.”

Grisham writes that Mrs. Trump has repeatedly shared her opinion that the elections in 2020 will be lost, and this will happen because of Jared.

By the end of his administration, Kushner was Trump's "true chief of staff," Grisham said. He sat down with Pence, the vice president and newly appointed head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, for the first meeting about what Trump should tell the nation about the pandemic. He also appeared to dictate much of the president's first widely criticized televised address on the pandemic - the one that announced travel restrictions. No one warned the federal agencies that were supposed to introduce them beforehand.

Photo: Shutterstock

Melania's criticism

Melania Trump, whom Grisham describes, is as stubborn as her husband, but his temperamental opposite. She cared for herself so much that she changed into a robe and slippers almost immediately after boarding Air Force One. Due to uncertainty about her accent and English grammar, she rarely wrote anything herself.

The Secret Service gave her the nickname "Rapunzel" because she rarely left her tower, the White House residence. “The agents asked to be assigned to her so they could spend more time with their families,” Grisham writes.

When she wasn't spending time with her son Barron or her parents, she worked on her photo albums, which Grisham calls one of her "two children." In the midst of the pandemic, she spent two hours recreating a ribbon-cutting photo for the White House tennis pavilion because she hadn't gotten the right shot weeks earlier. She allegedly did a photo shoot for the rug during the Capitol riot.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York.

However, Melania was not completely removed from politics. Grisham writes that the first lady hinted that she believed the 2020 election was illegitimate—that “something bad happened.”

Grisham said she went along with Trump's plan to insult Jill Biden by not inviting her to the traditional White House tea, a ceremony that the outgoing first lady usually hosts for her successor.

The first lady was similarly criticized for not standing next to Trump the way Jill Biden stood next to her husband on election night in 2020. “She said, 'I don't stand next to him because I don't need to support him like she does. Can you imagine this? writes Grisham. “It made me laugh.”

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.