Loyal trumps all for press secretary who fought Kim’s guards

For once the White House found itself fighting on the same side as the media.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, left, at a news conference by President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Seoul last Sunday. Picture: Jacquelyn Martin/pool/AP

For once the White House found itself fighting on the same side as the media. Normal hostilities were set aside when Stephanie Grisham, the US President’s new press secretary, grappled with a North Korean security guard to allow journalists to squeeze into the meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.

The moment was captured on a shaky smartphone video and showed Ms Grisham, 42, using her full bodyweight to shove the much taller man aside while yelling “go, go” to American pool photographers and reporters.

North Korean security staff guard a North Korean motorcade while US President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un meet in the DMZ. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

After the almost total collapse of relations between her predecessor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and the White House press corps, some hailed the moment as a potential turning point.

Ms Sanders, 36, who took over from the hapless Sean Spicer in July 2017, increasingly withdrew from the press briefing room as Mr Trump’s conflict with American newspapers and networks intensified. She gave her last press briefing on March 11.

Under previous presidents the briefing was a near daily occurrence, an occasion for reporters to hold the most powerful elected politician in the world to account on behalf of voters.

Mr Trump, though, likes to present his own message and conduct press briefings personally, often on the White House lawn as he prepares to board a noisy Marine One, the presidential helicopter. Or when he phones into a program on Fox News, his preferred TV outlet, for a chat with a presenter he likes.

Ms Grisham, who volunteered for the Trump 2016 campaign with a background in media relations for senior Arizona Republicans, formally began her new job this month.

She was picked after impressing with her loyalty — a key determinant for promotion in the Trump world -when serving as press secretary for Melania Trump from the start of the administration, a role in which she established a fearsome reputation.

The Korean tussle, which reportedly left Ms Grisham nursing bruises, may not necessarily be the harbinger of a more open relationship with the press, however. For a start, it is not her only job. She has kept her role with the first lady and she is also to director of communications, the post vacated by the former Fox News executive Bill Shine in March.

Gerald Seib, executive Washington editor of The Wall Street Journal, does not foresee a fresh approach. “North Korea was an admirable performance but to extrapolate from that she’s going to stand up and speak to the world on behalf of President Trump, I just don’t see it,” he said.

The Times emailed Ms Grisham this week to ask for details of her plans for the job but did not receive a reply.

President Trump sowed confusion in a Fox News interview when he claimed to have solved the homelessness problem in the capital.

Asked about rough sleeping, he said: “You know, I had a situation when I first became president, we had certain areas of Washington DC where that was starting to happen and I ended it very quickly. I said, ‘You can’t do that.’ When we have leaders of the world coming in to see the President of the United States and they’re riding down a highway, they can’t be looking at that.”

Brianne Nadeau, from Washington’s human services committee, said: “I have no idea what the President’s talking about.”

It was the sort of odd statement that a White House press briefing could clear up — if there were one.

The Times