Ex-Melania Trump aide’s tell-all book could be linked to Ivanka bid for the White House, says former friend

‘I have a hunch ... this might be Ivanka’s next step for her bid for the White House’

A former friend of Melania Trump says her ex-aide’s tell-all book could be linked to a White House bid by Ivanka Trump.

During her time in the Trump administration, Stephanie Grisham served as the first lady’s chief of staff and press secretary but also as White House communications director and press secretary, famously becoming the only top administration spokesperson to never hold a briefing in modern American history.

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a fashion and entertainment executive and former senior adviser to Ms Trump told CNN that the former first lady’s chief of staff “wasn’t there to have Melania’s back. Stephanie was there as an Ivanka loyalist ... Stephanie Grisham started out in the West Wing”.

“I have a hunch ... this might be Ivanka’s next step for her bid for the White House,” Ms Wolkoff added. “Having Stephanie Grisham do a little dirty work on Melania.

“I don’t put anything past them, really,” she said.

In an upcoming book, Ms Grisham writes that she never believed that the 2020 election was stolen – the baseless conspiracy theory boosted by former President Donald Trump. She claims that she tried to convince Ms Trump to accept President Joe Biden’s victory.

But text messages revealed by Politico go against Ms Grisham’s narrative.

On 5 November, after Arizona’s Attorney General Mark Brnovich rebutted claims from Trump supporters that voters who used Sharpies had their ballots improperly disqualified, Ms Grisham forwarded Mr Brnovich’s tweet to a presidential aide and reportedly wrote: “Told you. Useless.”

The next week, when Mr Brnovich told Fox News that there was “no evidence” of fraud that would change the Arizona election results, Ms Grisham apparently texted the same aide: “Such an a**.”

Mr Biden won the state of Arizona by a slim margin – the first time a Democrat presidential candidate had won the state since Bill Clinton in 1996.

“Unless she’s had an epiphany of conscience, I don’t think there’s going to be anything really new in the book that we don’t already know,” Ms Wolkoff told CNN.

“As long as you go along with what they want you to say, and do, then you’re part of the Trump team. And that’s exactly what Stephanie did. It’s a little too late,” she added.

She said the Trumps “turn on people that are not only supportive of them, but want the best for them”.

“So many people have been prosecuted by them because they have told the truth,” she added. “If you are going to support the Trumps, that means you are going to say exactly what they want you to say, or else you’re no longer part of their team.

“I think too many people are listening to the words they say, but not the actions they’re taking. And their loyalty only runs one way, and it only runs their way,” the former adviser said.

“You can be convinced, you can feel embraced by them. I mean, [Mr Trump is] very convincing to millions of people, obviously. And I myself fell for Melania’s friendship,” Ms Wolkoff told CNN.

“I think that there’s a narrative that people follow, people want to hear, people want to see ... they’re going to make sure, to keep going, as long as their base is following them, and say and do whatever it takes, to keep them following,” she added.