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- Stephanie Grisham said in her memoir that she and Melania Trump called Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump "the interns."
- Grisham blamed Kushner for Trump's disastrous March 2020 Oval Office address on COVID-19.
- Grisham unloaded on the couple and especially Kushner, who she called "Rasputin in a slim-fitting suit."
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Former White House aide Stephanie Grisham and former first lady Melania Trump derisively referred to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner as "the interns," Grisham wrote in her forthcoming memoir.
Grisham, who served as White House press secretary from July 2019 to April 2020, made no secret of her disdain for the couple and especially for Kushner. Trump's daughter and son-in-law served as White House advisors.
The "intern" dig took hold among White House staff because the couple "represented in our minds obnoxious, entitled know-it-alls," Grisham wrote, adding that Melania found it "amusing" and sometimes used it herself. These scenes are captured in an excerpt of her upcoming book, "I'll Take Your Questions Your Questions Now," that was published in Politico Magazine on Friday.
"It was my fervent opinion that his arrogance and presumption had grown over the years, and he threw his power about with absolutely no shame," Grisham wrote of Kushner. She also said she told Melania on multiple occasions that if former President Donald Trump lost his reelection bid, it would be Kushner's fault
In the excerpt, Grisham described the behind-the-scenes chaos caused by Ivanka and Kushner insisting on March 11, 2020 that Trump give an Oval Office address on the COVID-19 pandemic that very day, leaving Grisham and other staff scrambling to book airtime and prepare a speech.
"We did a lot of random things in Trump World, but that just seemed too crazy even for us," Grisham said of putting together a televised address in less than a day.
"What struck me in that meeting was that Jared, who was sitting next to the vice president of the United States, commandeered the meeting and was calling all the shots," Grisham wrote. "It was disrespectful, and I remember feeling both embarrassed and disgusted."
The speech did go forward and in it, Trump misrepresented several aspects of the US's COVID-19 response, on everything from which parts of Europe were subject to travel restrictions to whether insurance co-pays would be waived for COVID-19 treatment. His remarks forced federal agencies and groups in the health industry to correct the record and left Grisham scrambling to deal with the fallout.
"One of my other biggest personal regrets is that I didn't have the courage to speak out against Jared, Ivanka and Hope [Hicks] about the potential dangers of addressing the nation without any Covid response strategy in place, and what a disservice it could be to the country and the president," Grisham wrote.
White House staff also called Ivanka "the Princess," Grisham said in the book. And she called Kushner "the Slim Reaper" and "Rasputin in as slim-fitting suit" because he intervened in other people's projects and then took credit for their work, she added.
In one instance, she recounted how Kushner and Ivanka tried to join Trump and Melania on their visit to see Queen Elizabeth II - a significant breach of protocol for an official state visit. But they were turned away because there wasn't enough room on the helicopter.
"I finally figured out what was going on," Grisham wrote in the book, according to The Washington Post. "Jared and Ivanka thought they were the royal family of the United States."