The former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, also a former top aide to former first lady Melania Trump, has written a book.
According to Axios, which broke the news having noticed an Amazon page for the title, “I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in The Trump White House will be published on 5 October by Harper Collins”.
No news yet of what might be in the highly guarded tome, but cynical observers might suggest it being highly guarded is rather appropriate, given that Grisham proved highly guarded in the company of reporters while she was White House press secretary and indeed barely took any questions: she did not host a single press room briefing in her nine months on the job.
Grisham stayed in the White House after relinquishing the press secretary role, ultimately resigning on 6 January this year, the day Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overturn his election defeat.
According to Axios, a source close to Grisham said she “knows where all the bodies are buried because she buried a lot of them herself … [she] has receipts … she was a press person and it was her job to make sure she knew what was happening.”
The reporter Jonathan Swan – he of the famous interview with Trump last summer and the looks of bewilderment and skepticism that were swiftly, inevitably memed – adds that a former West Wing source said: “When I heard this, all I could think about was Stephanie surrounded by a lake of gasoline, striking a match with a grin on her face.
“There isn’t enough water on earth to contain the fire she could set to all of Trump world, including parts like the first lady’s orbit, which not many people are in a position to illuminate.
“It’s hard to articulate how much anxiety this is going to cause.”
The Guardian has contacted Donald Trump’s spokeswoman, Liz Harrington, to see if he has any comment.
It’s not particularly hard to articulate how much interest Grisham’s book will cause as publication day nears, whether it turns out scoop-filled or a damp squib.
This summer saw a huge crop of Trump books with attendant scoops and reviews. Many observers said most such books were relatively lacking in scoop, the territory having been strip-mined since Michael Wolff birthed a genre with Fire and Fury in 2018.
It’s also worth noting that books about Melania, and indeed press coverage of them …tend to be eagerly read.
