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Quick facts for kids Stephanie Grisham
Grisham in 2019

Chief of Staff to the First Lady
In office April 7, 2020 – January 6, 2021
President	Donald Trump
First Lady	Melania Trump
Preceded by	Lindsay Reynolds
Succeeded by	Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón
Press Secretary for the First Lady
In office April 7, 2020 – January 6, 2021
President	Donald Trump
First Lady	Melania Trump
Preceded by	Herself (2019)
Succeeded by	Michael LaRosa
In office March 27, 2017 – July 1, 2019
President	Donald Trump
First Lady	Melania Trump
Preceded by	Joanna Rosholm
Succeeded by	Herself (2020)
32nd White House Press Secretary
In office July 1, 2019 – April 7, 2020
President	Donald Trump
Deputy	Hogan Gidley
Preceded by	Sarah Sanders
Succeeded by	Kayleigh McEnany
White House Communications Director
In office July 1, 2019 – April 7, 2020
President	Donald Trump
Preceded by	Bill Shine
Succeeded by	Dan Scavino (White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications)

Personal details
Born	Stephanie Ann Sommerville Colorado, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouses	Dan Marries (m. 1997; div. 2004) Todd Grisham (m. 2004; div. 2006)
Children	2
Education	Colorado Mesa University (no degree)

Stephanie Ann Grisham (née Sommerville) is an American former White House official who was the 32nd White House press secretary and served as White House communications director from July 2019 to April 2020. She was chief of staff and press secretary for the first lady of the United States, Melania Trump from 2020 to 2021, after previously serving as her press secretary from 2017 to 2019.

Grisham was a press aide to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and then a member of the presidential transition team. She was the first White House Press Secretary to hold no press conferences, instead opting for interviews on conservative news outlets. Grisham assumed the role of chief of staff to the first lady on April 7, 2020.

She resigned on January 6, 2021, following the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol. In September 2021, she announced the publication of her book about her time working in the Trump administration, I'll Take Your Questions Now.

Early life
Career
- Trump campaign and transition
- Trump administration
Personal life
See also

Early life

Stephanie Ann Sommerville was born in Colorado to Robert Leo Sommerville and Elizabeth Ann Calkins. Her parents divorced, and her mother remarried, first to Dave Allen, with whom she had another daughter, and then to Roger Schroder. Grisham came from a farming family. She moved with her mother to East Wenatchee, Washington, where she graduated from Eastmont High School in 1994. Her mother has since moved to Nebraska, where she is known as Ann Schroder.

Grisham began voting in Arizona as a registered Democrat in 1997. Grisham attended Colorado Mesa University, but did not earn a degree.

Career

Grisham was the spokeswoman for AAA Arizona in 2007, but was fired within a year after being accused of falsifying expense reports. Grisham was fired from a subsequent job at ad agency Mindspace over plagiarism charges, copying AAA material verbatim into her client's web page.

From 2008 to 2010, Grisham worked as a spokeswoman for the Arizona Charter Schools Association. There she met Tom Horne, Arizona's superintendent of public schools. From about 2011 to 2014, Grisham was spokeswoman for Tom Horne after he was elected Arizona attorney general. She witnessed the 2014 execution of Joseph Wood and controversially claimed that the two-hour ordeal had been "quite peaceful," contrary to several reports that Wood had "gasped and snorted" throughout his execution.

After Republican Mark Brnovich defeated Horne in the 2014 GOP primary, Grisham worked as a spokesperson for the Arizona House of Representatives Republican caucus. She revoked the Arizona Capitol Times's press credentials hours after their reporting that the House speaker, David Gowan, had traveled at state taxpayers' expense during his campaign for Congress. Reporters refused to comply, and Gowan rescinded the order.

In 2012, Grisham also worked for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. In September 2015, Grisham worked as a press coordinator for Pope Francis's visit to Philadelphia as an independent contractor.

Trump campaign and transition

Circa August 2015, Grisham started working as a press aide to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. She helped arrange his campaign stops in Phoenix and around the state and region throughout the primary, a role that quickly expanded to include his rallies around the U.S. Grisham was on state payroll until May 2016, when she took an unpaid leave from the Arizona House of Representatives to work on Trump's campaign.

After his victory, Grisham was named a special adviser for operations and won a place on Trump's transition team. Arizona House speaker David Gowan paid her $19,000 in state salary over an 8-week period while she was serving as a member of the Trump transition team.

Trump administration

After Trump's January 2017 inauguration, Grisham was named deputy press secretary for Sean Spicer in the West Wing of the White House.

In March 2017, First Lady Melania Trump moved her over to the East Wing. A former White House colleague said that the president regretted losing Grisham to the first lady's office because of Grisham's loyalty and skill at handling the press while acting as his traveling press secretary. During that time, she built relationships with many reporters at events. Despite losing Grisham as part of his own staff, President Trump said he was satisfied that the first lady would "be in good hands". Grisham was described by several sources who had worked with her previously as being "highly competent" and "self-aware"; some suggested that she enjoyed "trolling the press".

The United States Office of Special Counsel stated that Grisham violated the Hatch Act of 1939 following a complaint by Senator Tom Carper. Grisham was accused of using her official Twitter account on July 11, 2018, to tweet out Trump's campaign slogan. The agency responded by sending Grisham a warning letter.

In July 2019, Grisham replaced Sarah Sanders as White House press secretary and White House communications director. Grisham's appointment was announced by Melania Trump via Twitter on June 25, 2019. The June 28, 2019 Annual Report to Congress on White House Office Personnel listed Grisham as "Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications for the First Lady", with an annual salary of $183,000.

On September 5, 2019, the Washington Examiner published an opinion piece written by Grisham and her deputy Hogan Gidley entitled, "The Washington Post's lost summer". The authors asserted the Post had not reported on several Trump accomplishments that the paper actually did report. In one instance, the piece linked to a Post story entitled "Trump becomes first sitting president to set foot into North Korea" as the authors asserted the paper had not reported the event.

On September 23, 2019, when asked by the hosts of Fox & Friends if the White House planned to resume its daily press briefing, Grisham said "not right now... I mean, ultimately, if the president decides that it's something we should do, we can do that, but right now he's doing just fine. And to be honest, the briefings have become a lot of theater. And I think that a lot of reporters were doing it to get famous. I mean, yeah, they're writing books now. I mean, they're all getting famous off of this presidency. And so, I think it's great what we're doing now."

On October 24, 2019, while again appearing on Fox & Friends, Grisham defended Trump's description of "Never Trump Republicans" as "human scum". When asked if Trump should apologize, Grisham said "No, no, he shouldn't. The people who are against him and who have been against him and working against his [agenda] since the day they took office are just that. It is horrible that people are working against a president who is delivering results for this country and has been since day one. And, the fact that people continue to try to negate anything he's been trying to do and take away from the good work he's doing on behalf of the American people, they deserve strong language like that."

On October 26, 2019, in response to criticism of President Trump by his former chief of staff Gen. John F. Kelly (Ret.) Grisham stated: "I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our President."

On November 13, 2019, during the testimony of William B. Taylor Jr., Grisham commented that the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump was a "sham hearing" that is "not only boring, it is a colossal waste of taxpayer time & money."

That same month, Grisham claimed that Obama administration officials had left "you will fail" notes for the incoming Trump administration officials. Numerous Obama administration officials rejected the claim. Grisham ultimately retracted her assertion.

In December 2019, Grisham defended President Trump's implication that former congressman John Dingell was in hell. She described Trump as a "counter-puncher" who was "under attack".

On April 7, 2020, it was announced that Grisham left her role as White House Press Secretary and returned to the East Wing to be Melania Trump's chief of staff, effective that same day.

On the evening of January 6, 2021, Grisham resigned from her position as Melania Trump's Chief of Staff following the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.

On January 5, 2022, Grisham testified to the January 6th Committee. She had testified to them once before, but that testimony was briefer. According to the Guardian, she told the committee that Trump held secret meetings in the White House residence in the weeks before the Capitol attack and that the Secret Service had received a presidential document reflecting Trump's intentions to march to the Capitol on January 6. She testified again on May 18, 2022.

Personal life

As Stephanie Ann Sommerville, she married Danny Don Marries in Nevada on April 7, 1997. They met at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colorado. Her husband joined KOLD-TV as a news anchor in Tucson, Arizona, on the day after their son's first birthday. They divorced in 2004.

Later in 2004, she married Todd Grisham, then a KOLD sportscaster. They divorced in 2006.

On December 25, 2007, Grisham had a second son, Jake.

In 2019-2020, Grisham dated then-Trump White House aide Max Miller.