Scoop: The most dangerous Trump exposé
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Stephanie Grisham has quietly written a top-secret memoir of her four years in Donald Trump's White House, and a publishing source says she'll reveal "surprising new scandals."
What to watch: The book — "I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in The Trump White House" — will be published Oct. 5 by Harper Collins.
- A former West Wing colleague of Grisham's tells Axios: "When I heard this, all I could think about was Stephanie surrounded by a lake of gasoline, striking a match with a grin on her face."
A source close to the publication told Axios: "Grisham knows where all the bodies are buried because she buried a lot of them herself."
- The source says Grisham "has receipts ... she was a press person and it was her job to make sure she knew what was happening."
Why it matters: Grisham is the only person to have served as a top aide to both President Trump (White House press secretary and communications direct0r) and first lady Melania Trump (chief of staff).
- She knows the family well and will shed new light on their dynamics with her first-person account, the sources said.
Between the lines: Melania Trump guarded her privacy intensely and trusted almost nobody during her time as first lady. Grisham, as her chief of staff, was one of the very few allowed into her inner sanctum.
- She saw another side of the Trumps — in the residence — that most staffers never got to see.
Behind the scenes: Until now, only a handful of people knew of the book's existence. Grisham has deliberately kept a low profile since she resigned on Jan. 6.
- The book is heavily embargoed, with code names used for the project.
- And there's been a dummy Amazon link.
Grisham's former West Wing colleague tells Swan: "There isn’t enough water on earth to contain the fire she could set to all of Trump world, including parts like the first lady’s orbit, which not many people are in a position to illuminate."
- "It's hard to articulate how much anxiety this is going to cause."
