Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said that after working under former president Trump, it was clear to her he “admired” Russian President Vladimir Putin and his willingness to stifle dissent.
“I think he feared him. I think the man intimidated him,” Grisham said of Trump and Putin during a Tuesday appearance on “The View.” “I also think he admired him greatly. I think he wanted to be able to kill whoever spoke out against him.”
Grisham added that Trump “loved the dictators” he met with on international trips during his four years in office, repeating comments she’s made in the past.
Putin has faced accusations of violence against journalists and opposition leaders for a number of years.
“He loved the people who could kill anyone, including the press,” Grisham said. “Donald Trump would be 54 feet below ground hiding [if his country was invaded]. And [Ukrainian president] Volodymyr Zelensky is out there fighting for his country.”
Since leaving the White House, Grisham has published a tell-all book filled with behind-the-scenes stories of personal interactions with the former president and allegations of a toxic environment in his White House.
She has appeared extensively on television and other media in the weeks since, often making sharp, critical comments about Trump and the people in his inner circle.
“The president frequently said insane things to foreign leaders,” Grisham wrote in her book. “Sometimes they were just silly or offensive, sometimes they were offhand remarks that would inadvertently upend the carefully crafted policies of our diplomatic and national security professionals, sometimes they were sheer bluster.”
Trump has been criticized for his comments about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, during which he called the Russian leader “genius” and “savvy.”
He later appeared to reverse course, calling the Russian invasion of Ukraine a “holocaust” and urged Russia to stop fighting.
In a statement after Grisham’s book published, Trump called his former press aide “very angry and bitter.”
“She had big problems and we felt that she should work out those problems for herself,” Trump said at the time. “Now, like everyone else, she gets paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things.”