Stephanie Grisham, an ex-aide to Melania Trump, has disclosed behind-the-scenes insights into the relationship between her former boss and Donald Trump following past allegations of his one-night stand with adult star Stormy Daniels.
While making the revelation, Grisham revealed that Trump harbors a sense of fear towards his wife and that he expressed concern about her reaction when the allegations first broke. These revelations come as the Stormy Daniels trial commences, with Trump recently indicating his intention to testify.
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Why Donald Trump Allegedly ‘Fears’ Melania Trump
Speaking in an interview with MSNBC’s Alex Witt, Grisham gave her own assessments of the dynamics between Trump and Melania just as the former begins his long-awaited Stormy Daniels trial.
She suggested that Trump “fears” his wife while pointing to the billionaire mogul’s handling of the adultery allegations.
“I recall one time the former president calling me from Air Force One to basically see how angry she was and to see if we were putting any statements out because we never checked with the West Wing if we were going to say anything, so he definitely was worried,” she claimed, per HuffPost. “The West Wing was constantly checking in with me.”
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Grisham further explained that during these moments, the West Wing understood not to inquire too deeply for additional information beyond what she disclosed to them.
She continued, “When I said we are not going to the State of the Union or she will just meet him on Air Force One, I stopped there, and they all knew in the West Wing not to push further or ask her to do any more than that.”
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Melania Trump’s Reaction To The Stormy Daniels Affair Scandal
Grisham had earlier revealed in an interview with CNN that Melania reacted very strongly to the news of her husband’s affair. According to the former aide, the mother of one “didn’t take it lightly at all,” leading to tensions in the White House at the time.
She also explained Melania’s decision to attend the State of the Union separately, revealing that she didn’t want to emulate Hillary Clinton, who stood by her husband, Bill Clinton, during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Similar to the initial emergence of the Daniels allegations, Grisham also believes that the current trial situation has caused concern for Trump. She claimed that Melania finds the situation “very embarrassing” and “humiliating,” saying this was the reason behind Donald’s worry.
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In the meantime, Melania has yet to comment on the trial. Additionally, she has only made rare appearances with her husband since his presidential re-election campaign started.
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Donald Trump Has Maintained He Never Paid Stormy Daniels Any Hush Money
Trump has since denied paying Daniels $130,000 to buy her silence. He has also denied falsifying his business records to hide the payment, which was reportedly made via his lawyer, Michael Cohen.
The former president was initially scheduled to be tried on March 25 on charges stemming from falsifying his records to hide the payment. However, the trial was pushed back to April 15 after the prosecutors filed a motion to be granted more time to review new evidence relevant to the subject matter.
The trial started with jury selection and will last six weeks before a verdict is reached. If Trump is convicted of the 34 felony counts in the case, he faces up to 136 years in prison or $170,000 in fines, although it is believed that he would not serve any prison time since he is a first-time offender.
Will Donald Trump Testify At The Trial?
Before the trial, there were speculations about whether Trump would take the stand to defend himself. Those speculations seemed to receive an answer after Trump claimed he would do so during his recent joint appearance with House Speaker Mike Johnson at Mar-a-Lago.
“I’ll be testifying. I tell the truth, I mean all i can do is tell the truth. The truth is that there is no case,” the former president told attendees at the gathering, per MSNBC.
Trump’s attorneys, who had earlier suffered failed attempts to postpone the trial, have yet to confirm whether the billionaire mogul will indeed be taking the stand. However, if he does testify, this would not be the first time he has done so, as he made a similar move during his civil case with E. Jean Caroll.
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Trump ended up losing the case and was required to pay Carroll over $83 million in defamation damages.
Donald Trump Says He Wants His ‘Voice Back’
On early Monday, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to blast President Joe Biden and the Department of Justice before his hush money trial began.
He wrote, “As virtually every legal scholar has powerfully stated, the Biden Manhattan Witch Hunt Case is, among other things, BARRED by the Statute of Limitations. This ‘trial’ should be ended by the highly conflicted presiding Judge.”
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In another post, Trump told his supporters, “The Radical Left Democrats are already cheating on the 2024 Presidential Election by bringing or helping to bring, all of these bogus lawsuits against me, thereby forcing me to sit in courthouses and spend money that could be used for campaigning, instead of being out in the field knocking Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the History of the United States. Election Interference!”
He added, “I want my VOICE back. This Crooked Judge has GAGGED me. Unconstitutional! The other side can talk about me, but I am not allowed to talk about them! Rigged Trial!”