Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham alleged in her upcoming book that former President Trump often said “insane” things to foreign leaders.
In her work, “I’ll Take Your Questions Now,” Grisham, who also served as chief of staff for former first lady Melania Trump, said that she did not see anything wrong with the former president’s July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to Insider.
The conversation between the two leaders, which occurred July 25, 2019, was at the center of the president’s first impeachment in the House, during which several officials testified. Trump was eventually acquitted in the Senate trial on charges in connection to the call.
During the call, Trump allegedly urged Zelensky to “look into” now-President Biden and his family’s dealings in Ukraine before the 2020 presidential election.
“I certainly didn’t see any smoking gun in the transcript that Trump had committed an illegal act,” Grisham said in her book, according to Insider. “But also, as the last chapter revealed, the president frequently said insane things to foreign leaders. Sometimes they were just silly or offensive, sometimes they were offhand remarks that would inadvertently upend the carefully crafted policies of our diplomatic and national security professionals, sometimes they were sheer bluster.”
The former press secretary, who rarely held press briefings during her time in the post at the White House, also told The New York Times that “she should have spoken up more.”
Grisham also reportedly tried to avoid a direct request from Trump to “reenact” his 2019 phone call with Zelensky for the White House press corps, according to the Times.
Grisham has said that she believed it was a “mistake” taking a job in the Trump White House.
Trump, in a statement to The Hill last week, attacked Grisham for claims in the book, describing her as “very angry and bitter.”
“She had big problems and we felt that she should work out those problems for herself,” Trump said in a statement. “Now, like everyone else, she gets paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things.”