Stephanie Grisham, former chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump, has dismissed as false President Donald Trump's claim that he was unaware his wife would give a speech addressing Jeffrey Epstein. Speaking to CNN on Thursday, Grisham said she believed the president was lying when he said he did not know the topic of the first lady's address.
“I’m gonna say, I call BS on our president saying he knew nothing about it,” Grisham told CNN’s The Lead. She argued that at the very least Melania Trump would have given him a heads-up after sending out an advisory the previous day.
On Thursday, Melania Trump delivered an unexpected White House address denying any connection to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. She insisted that claims to the contrary “need to end today” and called for Congress to allow Epstein survivors to testify. The first lady said she only briefly “crossed paths” with Epstein in 2000 but noted overlapping social circles.
Grisham, who served as Melania Trump’s chief of staff until 2021, described the first lady as highly strategic. “Melania Trump thinks about everything she does, and she thinks about it for a very long time, and she does things very strategically,” Grisham said. She added that Melania Trump “knew full well that walking out there into the White House residence, behind that podium like that, would make absolute waves.”
When asked if President Trump could have stopped the first lady from speaking, Grisham replied “absolutely not,” calling her “a very strong, very independent woman.” The president told reporters earlier that he did not know the subject of her address.
