Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is predicting even more chaos from President Donald Trump, saying his increasingly unpredictable behavior could make it difficult to find anyone willing to serve as his next spokesperson.
Grisham made the prediction Friday on CNN’s “News Central” with Brianna Keilar, discussing the abrupt departure of Katie Zacharia, who was fired as White House press secretary, according to CNN, after a disastrous debut and a series of uncomfortable television interviews.
Grisham said she wasn’t surprised, arguing that Trump hired Zacharia “based off of a couple of TV appearances” with “no vetting.”
“Look, the people in Trump’s orbit are used to absolute chaos,” Grisham said. “So even though to the rest of us this is craziness, they’re in there, you know, it’s another day.”
But Grisham suggested the turmoil could get worse.
“He’s about to be a lame-duck president, and my prediction is that he’s going to do crazier things than he’s already been doing,” she said.
Grisham also offered a glimpse into Trump’s expectations for his press secretaries, alleging that he routinely encouraged her to say things regardless of whether they were true.
In his mind, Grisham said, “You don’t need to prepare because at the very least, you just tell a lie.”
“He said that to me all the time. It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie, as long as you say it, enough people will believe you.”
Grisham, who resigned from the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, and has since become a vocal Trump critic, never held a formal briefing as press secretary. “I know that I never stepped behind that podium, but I’m very proud of that now,” she said.
She said Trump is “the most accessible president in history,” adding, “It doesn’t mean he’s the most honest.”
Trump’s press secretaries ultimately perform for “an audience of one,” she said, and are “expected to say whatever he tells you to say, whether it’s correct or not.”
With the midterms approaching, Grisham said she had been asking herself one question: “Who would want to do the job?”