Stephanie Grisham, the former White House press secretary whose new book has exactly the kind of wacky, gossipy details I love, reveals that a White House staffer had the job of playing Broadway tunes to calm Trump down when he was having one of his rages.
And unlike the sniffy denizens of Morning Joe, I don't hold her responsible for revealing everything she knew about Trump during his time in office. I mean, hello? Did Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski ever reveal the details they knew about Trump? Did any of the White House appointees who knew how Trump was dangerously subverting policies? DID BOB F'ING WOODWARD or any of the other Trump book shills???
No. They did not.
Jonathan Lemire said Grisham was a press wrangler, someone who traveled with the press corps.
"Then she moved to be press secretary, as you said. Never took a single question. Never held a formal briefing. Then eventually moved back to the First Lady's office."
"You know, a lot of these books written from Trump-era advisers are certainly about reputation salvaging, of course. Look, authors get paid. There's that, too. It is also made reflective of concerns about her future employment history being so closely aligned to the Trump team. I'm sure, for some, it is a guilty conscience. Maybe that's what we're seeing at play here," Lemire said.
"I also wanted to share one other detail from the book that I found extraordinary. She writes that there is a Trump aide in the White House who was designated as the music man, to play him his favorite show tunes, including 'Memory' from 'Cats.' They'd play the songs when the president was in a bit of a rage. The music was meant to calm him down."
