Grisham, Melania Trump’s chief of staff, resigns
Stephanie Grisham, the former spokesperson for Arizona politicians and former White House press secretary, has resigned from her role as First Lady Melania Trump’s chief of staff.
Grisham announced her resignation Wednesday afternoon after violent protests at the U.S. Capitol.
Grisham worked for Trump since his bid for the 2016 election
Grisham, 43, first worked for President Donald Trump in the early days of his campaign.
She helped organize a 2015 Mesa event for Trump and he kept her on the campaign managing the traveling press corps. She herded reporters from plane to plane as he flew across the country for fundraisers and rallies. By then, she’d already had experience working on a presidential campaign, having worked for 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney.
Grisham entered the White House as a deputy press secretary and later replaced Sarah Huckabee Sanders as press secretary before working for Melania Trump as a spokesperson and then as chief of staff.
Grisham was on camera far less than her predecessors Huckabee Sanders and Sean Spicer. During her tenure, she did not hold a single White House press briefing.
When President Trump, amid the 2019 impeachment inquiry, called “Never Trump” Republicans “human scum,” she defended his comments. She savaged the process as a “scam” and “an illegitimate sham” and called Democrats leading the inquiry liars.
Kayleigh McEnany replaced Grisham as White House press secretary in 2020.
Grisham’s political roots stretch to Arizona
Grisham was born in Washington state and moved to Gilbert, where she started her political career.
While she was in Arizona, she worked for several high-profile political officials and defended embattled Republicans — the role she reprised as a member of the Trump administration.
She was a spokesperson for former Republican Attorney General Tom Horne and the Republican caucus of the Arizona House of Representatives.
When Horne was the subject of an FBI investigation into allegations of mishandling campaign finances, Grisham defended her boss.
When she worked in the Arizona House of Representatives, then-House Speaker David Gowan issued a 2016 rule that required reporters to undergo extensive background checks before they could access the floor of the chamber.
Arizona First Amendment attorney David Bodney in 2019 called her “an obstacle to public records and information, a high degree of spin and needless obstruction.”
In 2014, Grisham pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless driving after she was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. She spent a night in jail and was placed on two years’ probation.
She was arrested on suspicion of DUI and driving without headlights while she worked for the Trump campaign, as well. She did not show up for her court date on Jan. 19, 2016, although she eventually paid off the debt and fees associated with the case.