Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham said she believes the former president is “dejected” about his indictment and court appearance.
“I think he’s absolutely dejected,” Grisham said on CNN on Tuesday ahead of his much-anticipated arraignment in Miami. “He doesn’t want to be arrested… He doesn’t like that. He thinks that it’s not elegant. He thinks that it takes away some of his power deep down.”
“But being Trump, he’s going to double, triple down as he’s been doing. He’s going to fundraise off of it. He’s going to play the victim.”
Officials said the former president technically was not “arrested” upon his arrival because he was appearing under a court summons but he was booked and fingerprinted ahead of a brief arraignment in which he entered a not guilty plea.
Grisham worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign before serving as press secretary to the first lady and later to the president.
She was serving as chief of staff to former first lady Melania Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of the former president’s supporters descended on the Capitol, leading her to resign that same day.
Grisham later said that it was a mistake to work for Trump and released a book in October 2021 that was critical of the former president.
Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 counts related to his handling of classified documents at a courthouse in Miami on Tuesday.
The indictment, which was unsealed on Friday, accused the former president of improperly retaining national defense information, sharing it with individuals who did not have proper security clearances, and blocking attempts by the federal government to recover the documents.