‘Afraid of people’: Trump wouldn’t have marched with Capitol rioters, White House aide says
Cami Mondeaux
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Despite his claims to the contrary, former President Donald Trump likely wouldn’t have marched with his supporters to the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot even if he was permitted by his security detail, according to the former chief of staff to the first lady.
On the day of the Capitol riot, Trump allegedly wanted to join his supporters at the Capitol building but was stopped by Secret Service members, according to witness testimony that was presented during a public hearing by the Jan. 6 committee earlier this past summer. However, even if Trump was permitted to join, it’s unlikely he would’ve followed through, according to Stephanie Grisham.
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“He’s actually quite terrified of being in danger. So I think he knew Secret Service would say no,” Grisham, who served as first lady Melania Trump’s chief of staff at the time of the Jan. 6 riot, testified to House lawmakers. “Even if Secret Service had given him permission, that man was not going to march down the street with people. I just know him. He’s afraid of people. He doesn’t want to do those things.”
The latest details emerged in the latest dump of witness testimony released from the Jan. 6 committee on Thursday, which included transcripts from witness interviews with several of Trump’s closest aides — such as Grisham, former speechwriter Stephen Miller, and his son Donald Trump Jr.
Grisham recalled some of the behind-the-scenes details during the day of the riot, particularly former President Donald Trump’s attempts to “rile up” the crowd to march to the Capitol while Congress was scheduled to meet and certify the results of the 2020 election.
“I was just disgusted by that tactic because I knew he wasn’t going to march down there. And he knew he wasn’t going to march down there. And yet, he said it,” Grisham testified. “He clearly was told these people are going to march down there.”
Grisham’s testimony that Trump would not join his supporters at the Capitol comes in direct contrast to comments the former president said earlier this year that he wanted to go but was instructed not to.
“Secret Service said I couldn’t go. I would have gone there in a minute,” Trump told the Washington Post in April.
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson backed up that sentiment in testimony to the Jan. 6 committee over the summer, telling the panel that Trump tried to take control of the steering wheel of his presidential SUV to change the vehicle’s course to the Capitol building on Jan. 6. A former Secret Service agent later disputed that testimony.
Grisham then described how she urged first lady Melania Trump to respond to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, with a tweet condemning the violence.
“Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness and violence?” Grisham texted Melania Trump shortly after rioters breached the Capitol grounds.
“No,” the former first lady responded.
Grisham expressed her disappointment in that moment, describing Melania Trump as someone who was typically able to be a voice of reason and influence her husband’s behavior.
“She just literally said no to me with no explanation,” Grisham testified. “I just — I mean, I kind of was just like f*** you … I was so so disappointed in her.”
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Grisham resigned from her position later that day in response to the Jan. 6 riots, noting that she “couldn’t take it anymore.” The former chief of staff allegedly tried to resign several times in the last six months of the Trump administration but stayed because Melania Trump was able to talk her out of it. But the events that took place on Jan. 6 were her breaking point, she testified.
“It was the fact that she would not take time [away from] photographing a carpet while our Capitol was being assaulted to tell people to be peaceful,” Grisham said.