Stephanie Grisham > Quotes

“It’s so nice when toxic people stop talking to you. It’s like the trash took itself out.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“At that point on the trip, I was starting to get as fed up with her behavior as the rest of the East Wing team was. Ivanka was constantly getting into the press shots that truly should have been reserved for the president and first lady. It was yet another example of the Kushners putting themselves on the same level as the first couple, and it was unseemly. For Mrs. Trump, it was about protocol and the rules; for all of us as staff, it was about allowing her to be in her role and have the people of the United States see her representing them with dignity and class.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“That observation may seem obvious, I know, but up close she is even more stunning. Because I know everyone is wondering, she even smelled incredible.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“The two sides of the wall are separated by sex,”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“You can feel sorry for yourself or angry for only so long.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“As much as I absolutely did not want to say it and it was certainly not in my voice at all, I was the spokesperson for the president of the United States, so in my mind it was my job to say what I had been told to say, word for word: “I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great president.” Even thinking about that now, years later, I cover my eyes with shame. I’m sorry, General and Mrs. Kelly, that I didn’t have the nerve to say no. It is one of my biggest regrets.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“If this were me, I’d be having a hard time right now.” She just shrugged, though. “This is Donald’s problem,” she told me. “He got himself into this mess. He can fix it by himself.” I marveled at that kind of attitude, still do. Because it is completely correct—when a person cheats, it is his or her own problem, nothing that the other person did.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“That was my first lesson that these guys played for keeps.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“An address to the nation is serious stuff, and whenever possible you need plenty of time to prepare properly—unless, of course, you were in the Trump White House, where everything was like a clown car on fire running at full speed into a warehouse full of fireworks. A”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“Jared Kushner at your door was sort of like a visit by the Grim Reaper—he always brought trouble and escaped without a scratch.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“Saudi Arabia is a savage place for women.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“No one was wearing a mask—not the president, not Fauci, not Birx. There was no social distancing.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“the people who surrounded the Trumps from the very beginning. In short, many of them were wealthy grifters from New York, people who claimed to know what they were doing and made huge promises they couldn’t deliver.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“she might look as though she was in a costume, as though we had dressed her up as Safari Barbie.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“When we traveled to Davos, Trump marveled about the country of Switzerland, which was clean, orderly, and full of rich people—very much his kind of scene. President Germophobe gushed to Swiss president Ueli Maurer, “Everything here is so clean. My hotel room is spotless.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“In an administration careening from crisis to crisis, the best way to look good was to be seen as putting out fires—even if you’d lit them yourself.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“Because we had alienated so many of the “normal” Republicans in Washington, a lot of them were either unwilling to join the administration or were put on some do-not-hire list by someone in Trump World.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“Saudi Arabia in May 2017 was the dust and the way Mrs. Trump looked when she emerged from the plane. It is my very favorite outfit that she ever wore—and that is saying a lot.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“Jared, who had appointed himself the expert on every problem—from the border wall to trade policy to an unprecedented global pandemic—suddenly claimed that he’d had nothing to do with the mess that was made. I cannot believe I ever found the guy attractive, sincere, or kind. By”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“What I’ve learned from my time in government”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“It is my fervent belief that when you are the common denominator in situations like this, you need to look within and determine where your own responsibility lies. People need to hold themselves accountable to situations so that they can learn from them and apply them in the next chapter of life, and that includes me. I”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“superspreader event” in the White House”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“Mrs. Trump could not control her husband and truly had only the best intentions for children. But nobody seemed to care about that.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“When there were issues that burnished her image, she was involved as official staff. When she wanted to distance herself from any of the president’s controversies, she was just his daughter.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“And less than a week after General Kelly resigned, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis resigned with a scorching letter to the president that got a ton of attention. So now we’d have a second defense secretary in two years. But that was a whole other drama that I wasn’t really in on.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“Trump allies grumbled about having too many “RNC people” moving into the White House (especially because the RNC had basically left Trump for dead after the Access Hollywood scandal),”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“In fact, this book may be the first and only time anyone has told President Trump that a corpse and a dog flew inside Air Force One, at the same time, on his watch.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“Trump always wanted to see how far you would go to do his bidding; it was his way of measuring your loyalty. And it was hard when you were caught in the middle of something like that to keep your bearings. I remembered that lesson when I took over as press secretary and resolved to do whatever I could to avoid having Trump do to me what he’d done to Sean. I wasn’t always successful, but I tried.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“Kellyanne Conway is one of the strongest and most cunning people I know.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House

“don’t plan to.”
― Stephanie Grisham, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House