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- Stephanie Grisham wrote in her new memoir that Rep. Matt Gaetz "would do anything" for Donald Trump.
- Grisham said Gaetz would regularly be called on to give Trump a pep talk or defend him on TV.
- "Gaetz was our boy," Grisham wrote in "I'll Take Your Questions Now."
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Stephanie Grisham, former White House press secretary, wrote in her new memoir that White House staffers believed GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz "would do anything" for former President Donald Trump.
Grisham said Trump's aides would get Gaetz on the phone to give the president pep talks or run interference on news shows.
"We all knew that whenever Trump needed someone to defend him on TV on anything, Gaetz was our boy," Grisham wrote in "I'll Take Your Questions Now."
She went on, "He would do anything for Trump and a TV hit – thought not necessarily in that order. When the president needed someone to tell him how awesome he was, the staff would get Gaetz on the line and he'd sing for his supper."
The Florida congressman, who is currently under federal investigation for paying a 17-year-old girl for sex, has long been closely allied with Trump. At one point during Trump's presidency, Gaetz signed a letter nominating Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. Shortly before Trump left office, Gaetz privately asked the White House for a pre-emptive pardon for any crimes he may have committed, The New York Times reported in April. Trump has said Gaetz never asked him for a pardon and the congressman has denied all of the sex trafficking allegations.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows would also call on other so-called "Trump whisperers," including Fox News hosts Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity and GOP Rep. Jim Jordan. Grisham wrote that Trump would rely on these men and a small number of White House aides to keep him informed about "what the base believed."
"On covid, Meadows and the whisperers nursed Trump's worst instincts. One of them told him that he could not wear a mask in public because it would show weakness and piss off the base, and everyone else blindly agreed," she wrote.
Grisham wrote that Trump's aides employed an array of tactics to calm him down when he'd become angry with the state of affairs. White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino would regularly inform the president of Rasmussen's poll numbers, which consistently showed better approval ratings for the president than mainstream polls, Grisham wrote.
Former White House aide Max Miller would play the president's favorite show tunes to prevent him from throwing a tantrum, Grisham wrote. Trump dubbed Miller "the Music Man."
Spokespeople for Gaetz, Trump, and Meadows didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.