Trumps' inner circle begin to turn on each other
White House staff blame Melania’s chief of staff Stephanie Grisham for the First Lady’s ‘lack of media coverage’ and her ‘missing out on a Tatler front cover to Meghan Markle’, columnist claims
- Members of the Trump administration have started turning on one another
- One of Melania Trump’s closest aides was subject of a hit piece in New York Post
- White House ‘insiders’ blamed Stephanie Grisham for the first lady missing out on a magazine cover to Meghan Markle
- ‘Out of nowhere and a complete hit piece,’ a senior administration official described it to DailyMail.com
- More pieces likely to come as staff fight for post-White House jobs and want to make sure their work is painted in the best possible light
- ‘When it’s out of the starting gating on Jan 20th, it’s every man for yourself,’ a senior administration official said
Members of the Trump administration have started turning on one another as their final days in the White House draw to a close.
With only 50 days until Joe Biden takes the oath of office, President Donald Trump’s staff is starting to engage in one of Washington D.C.’s favorite past times – the blame game.
Under attack first is Stephanie Grisham, one of Melania Trump’s closest aides, who was subject to a ‘hit piece’ in the New York Post Monday with White House ‘insiders’ blaming her for the first lady missing out on a magazine cover to Meghan Markle.
‘Out of nowhere and a complete hit piece,’ a senior administration official described it to DailyMail.com. ‘I’ve been trying to figure out what logic can be in it and I can’t find it. It’s two months until the end of the administration. I really don’t understand where this is coming from there.’
Citing ‘insiders who have worked for the White House over the past four years’ and ‘administration loyalists,’ the New York Post claimed the first lady has been ‘ill-served’ by Grisham.
One of the examples they cite is the September 2020 edition of the British magazine Tatler where Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, was featured on the cover instead of Melania Trump, who had given the magazine an interview via e-mail.
The New York Post is known to be one of President Trump’s favorite papers and one he reads daily – meaning the piece was surely noticed by the commander-in-chief.
One of Melania Trump’s closest aides is under attack from White House ‘insiders’
Members of the Trump administration have started turning on one another; Stephanie Grisham, one of Melania Trump’s closest aides, was subject of a ‘hit piece’
Grisham was blamed for Melania Trump loosing a cover of Tatler to Meghan Markle
And it could be a start of more blame game pieces to come – a common feature of the Trump era where aides fight it out against one another and it plays out in news pieces and on social media.
‘I think unfortunately it probably it is,’ the official said of more pieces to come, adding ‘this is not uncommon with some of the folks around the president.’
The mood around the White House has been grim as President Trump has lost legal battle after legal battle as he tries to overturn the election. His campaign has claimed massive voter fraud but failed to provide any evidence.
Meanwhile, Biden has formed his presidential inauguration committee and started naming Cabinet nominees.
During this, John McEntee, the director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, has reportedly threaten to fire staff if they start looking for their next job after the Trump administration ends on January 20th.
It’s an edict that has not helped morale.
‘When it’s out of the starting gating on Jan 20th, it’s every man for yourself,’ a senior administration official said of the mood.
Stephanie Grisham is one of Trump’s longest serving aides, having lasted from the 2016 campaign to the final days of the administration; above Kellyanne Conway left to be with her family and Hogan Gidley moved to the Trump 2020 campaign
More hit pieces are likely to come as Trump administration officials wrap up their tenure in the White House
As President Trump refuses to concede, the blame game about the campaign has been playing out.
Aides have been fighting in the press about who is on which side – those encouraging the president to keep up his losing legal battle and those who are trying to convince him the battle has been lost.
The blame game is common in all administrations but particularly in President Trump’s, where aides sometimes wage their own version of the ‘Hunger Games’ to serve life in the White House.
And now that the clock is ticking on their time in the White House, the knives are out among staff looking to land their post-Trump world gigs and to make sure their actions in the administration are painted in the best possible light.
Grisham is one of the few aides in the Trump orbit to serve from the early days of the 2016 presidential campaign to survive to the final days of his administration.
Her tenure in Trump world has been head spinning: she started off as a press aide on the campaign, was a deputy in the West Wing press shop, moved over to the East Wing to be Melania Trump’s spokesperson, moved back to the West Wing to be press secretary – where she held the distinction of never holding a single press briefing – to moving back to the East Wing to be the first lady’s chief of staff.
Grisham grew close to Melania Trump – the two women text and chat daily – and that proved her saving grace after her crash-and-burn tenure as White House secretary.
In Grisham’s defense, the press secretary job is thankless in the Trump era, where the president sees himself as his best communicator and defender. Grisham was also serving the triple role of White House communications director, White House press secretary, and East Wing spokesperson.
But she never held a press briefing and her failure to launch an aggressive media strategy began to grate on some senior staff in the West Wing, particularly Jared Kushner, who serves as a senior counselor to the president but many see as a de facto chief of staff.
When Grisham was ousted as press secretary in April, Kushner was reported to be unhappy with her reactive approach to the press instead of getting out ahead of a story.
She became a casualty when Mark Meadows came in as White House Chief of Staff and made several staff changes.
He quickly cleaned out the press office, installing Kayleigh McEnany as press secretary, Alyssa Farrah as communications director and his longtime congressional aide Ben Williamson as senior communications adviser.
Deputy press secretary Jessica Ditto was cut loose and deputy Hogan Gidley was moved from the West Wing to the Trump campaign.
Grisham was saved by the direct hand of Melania, who named her her chief of staff.
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