Takeaways from Trump aide's account of chaotic White House

Ferocious tantrums. Family gossip. Petty nicknames.

Stephanie Grisham, once a White House press secretary and chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump, is out with a book next week that paints a deeply unflattering picture of Donald Trump - a man with a “terrifying” temper who ogled a young aide and tried to impress dictators while president, she writes.

Grisham, who holds the distinction of having never held a press briefing while serving as White House press secretary, charts her path from low-level press wrangler to the Trumps' inner circles, and her gradual disillusionment with the family and eventual resignation following the Jan 6 insurrection.

As have the many books critical of Trump, Grisham's “I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House” has drawn Trump's ire. He bashed the book and its author in deeply personal terms, saying in a statement that Grisham was “paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things.'' ON MELANIA TRUMP Grisham describes the former first lady as a Marie Antoinette figure who refused to condemn the violence at the US Capitol on Jan 6 as Trump's supporters stormed the building to try to halt certification of the 2020 election results.

Grisham writes that she texted Melania Trump as the scene unfolded. “Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness and violence?'' she says she asked. She writes that ''literally one minute later and while she was preparing a photo shoot of a new rug she had selected - yes, you read that right - Melania Trump sent me back a one-word response: No.'” It was a breaking point for Grisham, who both praises the former first lady's off-camera temperament and offers insight into her peculiarities. She writes that Melania Trump's habit of avoiding public appearances was so “extreme” that the “Secret Service unofficially dubbed her Rapunzel' because she remained in her tower, never descending.'' She also writes that Melania Trump responded to the saga of adult film star Stormy Daniels and allegations of her husband's infidelity by tweeting a photo of herself on the arm of a handsome military aide and insisting at one point that she travel alone.

“I do not want to be like Hillary Clinton,'' Melania Trump reportedly told Grisham. ''She walked to Marine One holding the hands with her husband after Monica news and it did not look good.” ON TRUMP “His temper was terrifying. And it could be directed at anyone, whether he or she deserved it or not,'' Grisham writes. “He questioned people's confidence, their looks, their intelligence - whatever he thought would do the most damage to someone's psych.'' Trump had particular contempt, she says, for the White House lawyers. “He didn't like them telling him that things he wanted to do were unethical or illegal.'' Staff, she recounts, often deceived Trump to avoid his wrath, and tried to temper his worst impulses by stalling or distracting in a White House “where everything was like a clown car on fire running at full speed into a warehouse full of fireworks.'' #METOO Grisham writes that, while serving as press secretary, she noticed Trump “taking an unusual interest in a young, highly attractive press wrangler'' on her team, asking where the woman was, whether she would be travelling with him on foreign trips, and asking Grisham to bring the aide to his office cabin on Air Force One. ON HER ROLE One reason, Grisham writes, that she didn't want to hold formal press briefings was that she knew that ”sooner or later the president would want me to tell the public something that was not true or that would make me sound like a lunatic.” Indeed, at one point, she says, Trump asked her to reenact his “perfect phone call” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which led to his first impeachment, and “use two voices” on the briefing room “stage.” She writes that Trump also asked her constantly whether the press could be removed from the White House.