Trump 'turncoat' Stephanie Grisham burned a lot of bridges

In his column for the Guardian, political observer Martin Pengelly claimed that former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham likely has a wealth of stories about the inner workings of Donald Trump's presidency -- more than most -- but she has burned so many bridges with the press during her tenure they may never get the attention they deserve.

Grisham, who will appear on "Good Morning, America" on Monday morning to promote her book, "I'll Take Your Questions Now," will reportedly "break her silence" under questioning and columnist Pengelly suggested that what she has to say should be listened to because she has less to lose than other members of Trump's inner circle who are seeking cable news analyst slots that she will likely never be offered.

"Grisham is not the first insider to break omertà on the Trumps, who rose from running a New York real estate empire to occupying the White House, but she may well be the politico who got closest of all," the Guardian columnist wrote before adding, "But Grisham seems to have burned bridges with the mainstream media as well as her political party. Though the Washington Post and New York Times published detailed reports on her book, she seems unlikely to be welcomed into the fold as columnist or TV pundit."

As Pengelly notes, Grisham has come under withering criticism for not coming forward earlier -- choosing to stay on at the White House until after the Jan 6th insurrection which she claimed at the time was the last straw after working with the Trump family.

According to Eric Boehlert, founder of PressRun, a newsletter that analyses the media, Grisham is "....a legit inside source who had a position the whole time. So I think there's a feeling like she was in the room. It's not like hearsay."

However, he notes, she is facing being dismissed for holding back in ways that, for example, Trump security adviser John Bolton -- a frequent cable TV guest -- and other Trump insiders were not after they released insider books.

According to Boehlert, "...she's sitting in meetings for years, writing notes to herself at night about how the president of the United States is a danger to the world and the danger to the country. If you're gonna blow the whistle, have the courage to be a whistleblower. Don't do it after everything is safe and he's out of office."

He added, "She had this perk job, she had access to the most elite circles on the planet. And she knew it was all wrong, and she knew it was dangerous. And now she's cashing in on a book after Trump is in Mar-a-Lago. It's not exactly a profile in courage."

According to Pengelly, "As far as Trumpworld is concerned, Grisham's chief crime may be to have betrayed her access, as chief of staff to Melania and press secretary to Donald, to some of the family's most intimate moments."

He then added that Grisham may hope all will be forgiven within the passage of time if she wants to join the pundit circuit.

"Grisham now lives in Kansas, away from the Washington hullabaloo. Should she ever wish to dive back in, she may hope DC society at large responds as one White House predecessor did to her book," he wrote before quoting former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart saying of her book: "I don't care. Do you?"

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