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- Stephanie Grisham said working for Trump gave her "a sick sense of pride."
- "I'm not proud of that," she told New York Magazine.
- Grisham's new book about her time in Trump's White House came out on Tuesday.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Stephanie Grisham, a veteran of Trump's White House who published a bombshell memoir on Tuesday, said in a new interview that being in the former president's orbit made her feel important.
Grisham, who served on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and later landed multiple gigs at the White House, told New York Magazine that when he won the Republican nomination, "a bunker mentality set in."
"For people like me – and I'm not proud of this – you have a sick sense of pride," she told the news outlet in a report published on Tuesday. "All the people who told you how terrible he was? You're like, Oh? He's the nominee, buddy! I'm not proud of that."
Before Trump, Grisham was involved in GOP politics and dreamed of working at the White House one day, New York Magazine reported.
"I thought that they were the only ones who would ever get me there," Grisham said of Trump's circle.
Grisham described a "lack of confidence in myself as a single mother" and said she accepted working with Trump because it seemed like her "only shot."
"Nobody's gonna ever want me, really, but these people did. So I'll stick around," Grisham told New York Magazine.
Soon after Trump took office in 2017, Grisham became former first lady Melania Trump's press secretary until July 2019. She then moved on to serve as White House press secretary and communications director. In her nine months in the public-facing post, she never held a press briefing. Grisham then returned to work for Melania Trump as chief of staff before she resigned in the aftermath of the Capitol insurrection on January 6.
Grisham told New York Magazine that being in the White House made her "feel important" and "power hungry."
"If people say they don't love the powerful feeling in there, they're lying. It's kind of gross. I'm not saying something nice about myself right now," she continued. "I was so proud that I was surviving over everyone else, and I had such a complex that I hadn't been let into the inner circle in the beginning, so once I was there, I took a lot of joy out of it."
Grisham has recently expressed regrets over working for Trump, telling ABC News on Monday that it was a mistake.
Grisham's comments come as her new book, "I'll Take Your Questions Now, details a slew of explosive allegations about the former president and first lady. Spokespersons for the Trumps have dismissed and pushed back on her claims.