A terrifying portrait of Trump's White House life (Opinion)

Grisham publishes book critical of Trump 2:54

Editor's Note:

Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist.

She is a weekly CNN opinion writer, a columnist for The Washington Post, and a columnist for the World Politics Review.

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(CNN) -

The indelible image emerging from the latest revealing book on Trump's White House is that of a president plagued by insecurities and disengaged from morals. We rebuilt it from the striking anecdotes revealed in anticipated excerpts, provided to the media, of "I'll Take Your Questions Now," the forthcoming memoirs of former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham.

The sketches of life with Trump and his family that Grisham claims are certainly exciting: his claims about the former president's private interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin; his concern for his proportions, say, masculine; his childish attitude towards women.

There are also allegations of pretense and power grabbing by her daughter Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner, Trump advisers, along with behind-the-scenes looks at key moments in life in the White House.

In short, an entertaining retrospective of a strange presidency.

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But the Grisham stories, and those told in a series of recent books written by and about people with front row seats in the Trump presidency, are much more than that.

They carry enormous weight today, when we see that Trump and his disciples are laying the groundwork to try to win the presidency in 2024, seemingly at all costs.

Seen in this context, they are dark omens.

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When Grisham describes Trump's "terrifying" bouts of anger, one wonders what could happen in another Trump administration, with an even more emboldened president, one who was so terrifying to those who served under him, that the top military man of the Trump administration. The country, General Mark Milley, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives worried that it might attack China.

(In an upcoming Susan Glasser book, they also describe Milley as fearful that Trump would provoke a war against Iran.)

Grisham is not as well known as Trump's other press secretaries because, unbelievably, she did not hold a single press conference, possibly her main role in office.

(The title of the book, presumably, is deliberately ironic.)

And yet, he spent more time than the other three working with the administration: He joined the campaign in 2015 and resigned after the Jan.6 attack on Capitol by Trump supporters, so he has a backlog. of amazing stories that surely infuriated the former president.

("Stephanie didn't have what it takes and that was obvious from the start," she said in a statement Tuesday).

• Stephanie Grisham, Former White House Press Secretary, Says She Is "Terrified" By A Possible Presidential Nomination Of Donald Trump In 2024

Grisham hints at one of the lingering mysteries of the Trump presidency, his curiously deferential approach to Putin.

Despite Trump's incessant praise, he says, Putin was cold to Trump when they met in Osaka, Japan, for a G-20 meeting in 2019. So, he alleges, Trump kept trying to impress him.

According to Grisham's account, as the media prepared to enter the meeting room, Trump, who declared that it was "a great honor to be with President Putin", even though US intelligence was convinced that that Russia had systematically attacked the US elections to undermine democracy, leaned in and said to Putin: "I'm going to act a little tougher on you for a few minutes. But it's for the cameras ... you understand."

The interesting thing is what happened next.

Click here to refresh your memory.

Reporters came in and asked Trump if he was going to warn Putin not to interfere in the upcoming elections.

Trump turned to Putin and said: "Stay out of the election, please."

When Putin's translator told him what Trump said, the Russian president laughed out loud.

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Grisham writes that Fiona Hill, Trump's Russia adviser, speculated that Putin had brought in a remarkably attractive woman as a translator to distract the president.

Perhaps Putin and Hill knew of Trump's immaturity when it comes to women.

In Grisham's narrative, the former president appears as a sex-hungry teenager or as a repulsive and insecure old man.

When Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who claims to have had an affair with Trump (which he denies), wrote in her own short story that the president's penis was "smaller than average" and shaped like a mushroom mushroom. Mario Kart, Grisham says Trump called her from Air Force One to deny it.

In fact, judging by the allegations in the excerpts, Trump was extremely interested in his manhood and sexual matters. Grisham writes that the former president asked her boyfriend if she was good in bed. And, in more disturbing behavior attributed to a man who has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women and who was filmed bragging about grabbing women's genitals (all of which he denies), Grisham wrote that Trump told him he spotted a young press aide, and he invited her to his Air Force One cabin, supposedly explaining, he wrote, "so he can look at her [from behind]."

Beyond the immature attitude, Grisham says Trump instilled a culture of lies and deception.

"Casual dishonesty seeped through the White House as if it were in the air conditioning system."

Grisham writes that he instructed her to "confine herself to denying" the allegations of E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her.

"That's what you do in any situation," Grisham says he told him.

"'Right, Stephanie? You just deny it.'"

And sure enough, Trump's press secretaries repeatedly issued falsehoods to the press.

Also surprising are some of Grisham's stories about Jared and Ivanka.

According to

, "Grisham writes that Ivanka and Jared tried to break through to meet with Queen Elizabeth II alongside the president and the first lady, a savage violation of protocol on a state visit, but their plans were thwarted when they didn't fit in the helicopter. "

Grisham recounted: "I finally realized what was happening. Jared and Ivanka believed themselves to be the royal family of the United States."

• Grisham leaves as White House press secretary without having held a conference

Ivanka Trump frequently tried to get into meetings she did not belong to, the book states.

(The whole world could see it often).

And Jared accumulated power as Trump disposed of chiefs of staff and other key staff members like someone who disposes of expired "milk bottles."

The White House employees, Grisham writes, nicknamed the two "the Princess" and "the Grim Reaper."

Not surprisingly, Trump denies the book's claims.

It is also not surprising that he does so in sexist, childish and libelous terms, stating that Grisham was in "big trouble" and acting out of an emotional reaction to a breakup.

In a statement provided to CNN, Trump said: "Too bad depraved editors keep reporting this boring garbage. We and the MAGA movement are totally used to it. And someday, in the not too distant future, we will regain our voice and we will be treated fairly by the press. "

Donald Trump sues his niece Mary Trump 0:54

Despite the shock of the stories Grisham tells, they closely match the revelations in other recent posts.

(Has there ever been a presidency that has been followed by a flood of unflattering books and revelations from people in the administration?)

The mounting evidence is a reminder to American voters of what the country has just survived and what still threatens it: a man beset by insecurities and without principles, an admirer of dictators, who continues to assault the nation's democracy and who seeks to recover. the power.

Donald trump