Former US president Donald Trump told Vladimir Putin that he needed to act tough with the Russian President for the cameras. Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, in her book, ‘I Will Take Your Questions Now,’ Grisham writes about how, at the G20 summit in 2019, Trump said, Trump that he and Putin should both “get rid” of journalists who published “fake news”, saying: “You don’t have this problem in Russia”. Putin responded, “Yes, yes, we have too, the same”.
Trump’s presidency was dotted with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation on Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections and other controversies including claims by porn star Stormy Daniels that the president had an affair with her and paid her hush money to keep it quiet.
Grisham was Trump’s third press secretary. Titbits in Grisham's book compare Melania Trump to Marie Antionette and reveal internal rifts in the Trump family. After stepping down as press secretary, Grisham was working for Melania Trump and stepped down on January 6, the day Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. According to Grisham, Trump “was too wrapped up in his own ego and his own delusions about his invincibility” to deal properly with the pandemic.