MEET “THE ENFORCER”: Melania Just Announced The New Press Secretary, and You’re Gonna Love It!

Here's more, from Fox News:

Stephanie Grisham, a top aide to first lady Melania Trump, has been picked to replace Sarah Sanders as White House press secretary, the first lady announced Tuesday.

Grisham, who developed a reputation as a fierce defender of the first lady during her tenure as spokeswoman, will also become the White House communications director.

“I am pleased to announce @StephGrisham45 will be the next @PressSec & Comms Director!” the first lady tweeted. “She has been with us since 2015 - @potus & I can think of no better person to serve the Administration & our country. Excited to have Stephanie working for both sides of the @WhiteHouse.”

During a recent “Fox & Friends” interview, President Trump said “a lot of people” were angling for the gig. Asked about the possibility of choosing Grisham, the president said, “Stephanie is terrific.” Grisham joined the Trump campaign's press operation in 2015.

Stephanie Grisham, spokeswoman for first lady Melania Trump, stands at Orlando International Airport ahead of President Donald Trump's re-election kickoff rally at the Amway Center, Tuesday, June 18, 2019, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Sanders announced her plans to step down as White House press secretary earlier this month. On Tuesday, Sanders tweeted that Grisham "will be an incredible asset to the president and the country."

"I’m sad to leave the WH, but so happy to leave our team in such great hands," Sanders said. "Stephanie will do a phenomenal job. Proud to have another mom and a great friend in this role."

The role of White House press secretary, while still prominent, has changed during the Trump administration.

Under Sanders, the traditional televised press briefings in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room have largely gone away. Earlier this year, the president said he told Sanders “not to bother” giving those regular briefings anymore, saying the press covers her “rudely and inaccurately.” It’s now become more common for White House spokespeople to take questions from reporters in informal gaggles outside the West Wing.

Sarah Sanders has already weighed in to give her strong approval:

The Washington Post had more on Stephanie Grisham in an article titled:  "Meet Melania Trump’s enforcer. It’s not her husband.":

Staffers in President Trump’s White House are measured by longevity. There’s the Nov. 9 Club, the nickname for those who joined after Trump won the election. There are those who joined the campaign earlier, but only after he secured the nomination. And there are a few who came on board when his campaign was largely viewed as a joke by the GOP establishment — and everyone else.

Few in Trump’s White House have a history with him that dates as far back as Stephanie Grisham’s. For nearly two years, she served as communications director for first lady Melania Trump. A few weeks ago, she received a promotion to her deputy chief of staff for communications and has become one of the more powerful figures in the ever-evolving Trump White House. In the summer of 2015, she was a lowly press wrangler on Trump’s campaign.

On a hot July day 3½ years ago, Grisham — who had long lived in Arizona — was the person tapped to handle press for the candidate’s early and pivotal rally in Phoenix. Trump was a month into his run for president and ranked seventh in the Republican field. He had the controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio introduce him at the event, which was carried live on cable news. After his speech, Trump’s jumped to third place in the Republican primary rankings.

Before joining Trump’s long-shot campaign, Grisham was a local political operative who had worked on Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign for president. She’s seen now as one of the “unbroken threads,” says Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, referring to campaign staffers who stuck with Trump and are now working in the White House. (By this measure, Grisham’s thread is about a year longer than that of Conway, who joined the campaign in July 2016.)

“During the campaign she developed a good relationship with the president, and that’s carried through,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says. “She has developed a great amount of trust from both the president and the first lady, which is a pretty high commodity here,” Sanders adds. “There aren’t a lot of people who have a lot of regular interaction with both of them.”

Grisham's role has drawn attention for her acerbic statements directed at those who have crossed Melania Trump and her husband. When Trump attacked Mika Brzezinski in the summer of 2017 and claimed falsely in a tweet that she was "bleeding badly from a facelift," rather than shying away from the controversy, Grisham offered this statement on Melania Trump's behalf: "When her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder." When Donald Trump's first wife, Ivana Trump, cheekily called herself the "first Trump wife" and therefore "the first lady" while promoting a book last year, Grisham called Ivana"attention-seeking and self-serving." Grisham even got into an argument on Twitter with Issa Rae after the actress said in an interview that she would cancel her show "Insecure" if she learned that Melania Trump was a fan.

Aides describe the relationship between Trump and Grisham as one built on mutual protection and trust. “The resistance wants the first lady to be a victim, and she hates being seen that way,” one of her aides said. If anything, “Grisham makes clear that she is not.”

White House staffers are also learning that Grisham is not someone with whom to tangle. In preparation for Melania Trump’s first solo trip abroad, which she took to Africa this fall, deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel clashed with members of the first lady’s staff. Upon their return, Grisham and the first lady’s chief of staff, Lindsay Reynolds, approached White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly about the issue. When he took no apparent action, Grisham spoke directly to Melania Trump, who in turn spoke to her husband privately. Then, when still nothing happened, Grisham suggested to the first lady a different strategy: Without giving the West Wing warning, Grisham put out a statement: “It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House.”

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