During the White House press briefings nothing was off-limits—so prepping could sometimes be an impossible task. I had a great team who did an excellent job tracking the news and identifying the most likely topics. Raj Shah and Adam Kennedy could see blind spots I couldn’t, and were masterful at finding information and data points to support the administration’s message. I would have been lost without their preparation and guidance, but occasionally we missed something and I either had to go with my gut instinct or just get back to the reporter following the briefing with an answer. The most effective briefing prep for me was a murder board—where my team hammered me with one difficult question after another. Briefing prep was stressful but it was also one of the best parts of our day. It helped inform our team of where we were on a wide range of issues and also created a team atmosphere because we had to look at most every briefing as us against them, which brought us closer together. A lot of reporters were coming to the briefing hoping for a big gotcha moment that would go viral, or to ask something that made the president or the administration look bad. It was our job to do the opposite—get accurate information out and deliver the president’s message directly to the American people, not the 150 or so reporters, photographers, and videographers in the room.
I would read through the script that I would deliver at the top of the briefing. At the beginning of my tenure it was written by communications aide Cliff Sims, an excellent writer and fellow southerner who shared my desire to use the topper to tell a story. We collaborated to find good stories that would illustrate how the president’s policies were working and lifting Americans up. Some days we used the topper to make announcements about the president’s or first lady’s schedule or initiatives that were important to the administration. We saw this as five minutes to talk about whatever we wanted and drive the narrative.
One of my favorite things to do was to find letters to the president from kids who dreamed of coming to the White House. A boy named Frank had a lawn-mowing business and sent a letter offering to mow the lawn at the White House. He wrote:
Dear Mr. President:
It would be my honor to mow the White House lawn some weekend for you. Even though I’m only ten, I would like to show the nation what young people like me are ready for. I admire your business background and have started my own business. I have been mowing my neighbors’ lawn for some time. Please see the attached flier. Here’s a list of what I have and you are free to pick whatever you want: power mower, push mower, and weed whacker. I can bring extra fuel for the power mower and charged batteries for the weed whacker. I will do this at no charge.
Sincerely,
Frank
I read his letter from the podium and invited Frank to come and do just that. We coordinated with the National Park Service, which maintains the White House grounds, and Frank and his dad came to the White House and Frank mowed the lawn in the Rose Garden. As he was mowing, the president walked out of the Oval Office and high-fived Frank and thanked him for his letter and hard work. The pictures and video of Frank and the president went viral and it was really fun to watch it come together. Afterward, Frank told a reporter that “so far it’s pretty much the best day of my life.” It was moments like this that made my job so fulfilling, reminding us all how special it was to do what we do and who we got to do it for.
After Cliff left the White House, Judd Deere, one of my deputies, a fellow Arkansan, and one of the best hires I’ve ever made, took over writing the introduction for the briefings. The briefings were often intense, but I loved doing them. It was a crazy adrenaline rush to walk out under the bright lights into a room full of some of the most aggressive reporters in the world and have them fire questions at me, knowing one mistake could hurt the president and his team, not to mention cost me my job and career. I did more than one hundred televised briefings as White House press secretary, and many more gaggles with reporters in the White House driveway, on Air Force One, and on foreign trips. Going head-to-head with the media to stand up for the president and make the case for his policies was one of my favorite parts of the job. After the briefing wrapped, I often went into the Oval or the president’s private dining room to check in and get his feedback. He’d usually watch the briefings live or record and watch them later, but knowing that my boss—along with hundreds of reporters and millions of Americans—was tuned in to every word I said only added to the pressure to not mess it up! Often the rest of the afternoon was spent with the president in the Oval Office or his study off the Oval participating in his afternoon calls and meetings. The president is one of the most fun people to be around I’ve ever known. He has a huge personality and a laugh-out-loud sense of humor. I loved hearing his stories and watching him engage with members of Congress, CEOs, and foreign leaders, and spending this time with him was how I really got to know him and understand what he wanted and how best to do my job.
My evenings were often filled with more meetings and calls with reporters looking to get the last information they could before they filed stories for the day. At 6:00 p.m. our full press and communications team gathered again to talk about anything that needed to be closed out for the day and what was on deck for tomorrow. I’d then tie up any loose ends before I’d head to an event or home to try and catch my kids briefly before they went to bed. Many people think the only time the press secretary interacts with the press is during the briefing, but in reality that’s the least of it. I spent much of the day and night responding to their many questions and working stories, which is one of the most underappreciated but important parts of the job. There are hundreds of reporters around the world who had my direct cell or email or could simply knock on the door of my office in the West Wing, so the notion that we weren’t accessible to the press is absurd.
When I arrived home, I would read books to my kids, tuck them in, and kiss them goodnight. Afterward, I would eat a quick and often microwaved dinner while talking to my husband about my day. Then I would sit down on our couch and return more calls and emails until I went to bed around midnight, only to get up and do it all again the next day. It was exhausting, but exhilarating. I was always tired, but I ran on adrenaline and wouldn’t have traded my job for any in the world. I was honored the president chose me and worked tirelessly to move the president’s agenda and our country forward.
In the raging battle between the president and the media, I often felt like I was on the front lines in no-man’s-land. In one of my first briefings in my new role, I noted that I was the first mom to ever hold the job of White House press secretary, and said to my daughter, Scarlett, “Don’t listen to the critics. Fulfill your potential, because in America you still can.” It was the summer of 2017, and the president had only been in office for about six months, but the message I’d delivered for Scarlett was one I’d need to take to heart again and again under relentless attacks in the years ahead. Nothing was off-limits to the angriest Trump haters: my character, my weight and appearance, even my fitness to be a mother. MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said I was “vile,” “not even human,” and should be choked. In response to her hateful vitriol and incitement of violence against me, MSNBC did nothing.
The attacks from the media—particularly from liberal anchors and commentators on MSNBC and CNN—quickly intensified as I established myself as the spokesperson for President Trump. In response to one particular attack from a well-known media figure, my friend and colleague Josh Raffel sent an email defending me:
Subject: A personal note
We’ve always had great back-and-forths so I feel comfortable sending this note.…
Sarah is one of the classiest, smartest, wittiest, most generous, toughest people you would meet. Not to mention she is fun as hell. And I say that as a liberal New York Jew who never met a religious woman from the South.
And I think if you spent a day watching her behind the scenes, you would feel the same way and would not send a tweet like you sent.…
Would just ask you to consider that next t
ime you consider attacking her like that.
Not sure how much credibility I have, but very few people I’d put it behind and Sarah is at the top of that list.
It’s an honor to work for her and if you spent any time with her, you would feel the same way.
Thanks for reading.
—Josh
The media often reported about infighting in the White House—and yes, there was unfortunately too much of that—but what those reporters often missed was the close relationships many of us established battling together in the trenches. When I was home sick with strep throat and high fever Ivanka had matzo ball soup sent over from her favorite deli. When I’d had a rough day, Hope and Josh had pizza delivered so I didn’t have to make dinner for my family. On my birthday, my deputies Hogan Gidley and Lindsay Walters and my assistant Janet Montesi planned a surprise party with dozens of White House staff and friends. Hogan kept cough drops in his pocket for me for before and after every briefing and interview, once Ubered across town to pick up my dog Winston while I was traveling with the president, and despite being the neat freak he is, let my kids destroy his office every time they came by the White House. In fact, it was there my youngest son, George, learned his favorite phrase, “not cool, man!” from Hogan after George smeared syrup from his pancakes all over Hogan’s desk. When I wanted to leave the office early to make it to my daughter’s school performance or a parent-teacher conference, Raj Shah, my principal deputy, Hogan, Lindsay, Judd, and the rest of the press team covered for me and did an outstanding job so I didn’t have to worry about not being there. It’s been said that “if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog,” but from my experience in the Trump White House nothing could have been further from the truth. I had real friends in the White House who quickly became like family to me.
As we departed on the president’s first big trip to Asia later that fall, the Los Angeles Times ran a column by their Pulitzer Prize–columnist David Horsey referring to me as a “chunky soccer mom,” the first time a mainstream media outlet explicitly insulted my appearance. En route to Japan, nobody on Air Force One said anything about it. My husband hadn’t said a word. I suspect nobody wanted to bring more attention to it and offend me. We arrived in Tokyo for the state dinner hosted by Japanese prime minister Abe. Earlier in the day, we had bilateral meetings between the United States and Japanese delegations and I was part of the US delegation. As we walked into the meeting the president pulled me aside, looked me straight in the eye, and said, “Sarah—you’re tough, you’re beautiful, and you’re good at your job. That’s why they attack you. Never let those f——ers get you down!” He then slapped me on the shoulder and said, “Okay? Now, let’s get back to work.”
It was exactly what I needed to hear. The president could be a very kind and generous man. It was a side of him I regularly witnessed but unfortunately very few Americans got to see. Again and again, as a woman and a working mom, President Trump not only empowered me—he defended me and reaffirmed me when the feminists and liberals were tearing me down with cruel and dehumanizing personal attacks.
For Thanksgiving, I went with Bryan and the kids to his family farm in Kansas. As I did every Thanksgiving, I made my bourbon chocolate pecan pie. I’ll admit, this was a perfect-looking pie, and I was pretty proud of it so I posted a picture of it on social media. The next morning I woke up and noticed that April Ryan, a White House correspondent and CNN political analyst, had accused me on Twitter of lying about making the pie. (In previous briefings, April Ryan had asked me—among other ridiculous questions—whether President Trump believed “slavery is wrong.”)
I replied to her tweet: “Don’t worry April because I’m nice I’ll bake one for you next week #realpie #fakenews;-)” to which April said she still won’t eat the pie and still didn’t believe I made it.
Fox & Friends ran a segment on the #PieGate controversy and interviewed loyal Trump supporters Diamond and Silk, who said, “Only thing April can cook is fake news,” and that they wouldn’t eat April’s cooking anyway because “It be nasty!” My dad weighed in, suggesting Special Counsel Bob Mueller would now have to investigate #PieGate. The controversy spilled into the following week, getting extensive coverage on MSNBC and ABC’s The View.
Our team at the White House had been invited to the Christmas potluck lunch hosted by the White House correspondents in their offices behind the press briefing room and in the basement below the West Wing. Martha Kumar, an avid researcher who knows everything there is to know about the history of the press and presidency, is the main organizer and always brings a large ham as the entrée. There was a ton of food and champagne, and this year there would also be my now-famous bourbon chocolate pecan pie. To make sure there was no question as to whether I made it, I chronicled each step of the process on my Twitter feed. I started by laying out all the ingredients on my kitchen table (including pecans from chief of staff to the vice president Nick Ayers’s Georgia pecan farm), mixed them in a bowl, assembled and baked the pies, and delivered them the following day to the potluck. #PieGate was over. April still refused to eat the pie, but other reporters seemed to enjoy it, and I got a chance to show that regardless of the false personal attacks, I wasn’t going to let it change who I am or the way I treat others with whom I disagree.
At the lunch, Greg Clugston of Standard Radio wrote and read an original poem to the cadence of “The Night Before Christmas” to recap the “highlights” of the year. This was something Greg did every year. Some parts were funny, others not so much, but it was nice for everyone to stop for a moment and enjoy celebrating the holidays together.
’Twas the Night Before Christmas
2017 White House Press Basement Version
BY GREG CLUGSTON
’Twas the night before Christmas and in the White House,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes corporate tax cuts soon would be there.
POTUS was restless, watching Fox News on cable,
Tweeting as fast as his fingers were able.
Soon he dozed off, dreaming of the past year,
Eleven months in office and plenty to cheer.
Inauguration Day boasted the “largest” ever crowd,
Sean Spicer’s debut was angry and loud.
Travel bans were issued, executive orders signed,
Judge Gorsuch was confirmed—a great legal mind.
Trump reversed policies on climate and trade,
And delivered on Jerusalem where others had strayed.
Stocks soared on the Dow, plus a strong S&P,
With low unemployment and a rising GDP.
He blasted “fake news” and media hacks,
Opting instead for “alternative facts.”
Trump knocked NFL players for taking a knee,
And shocked a few parents at the Boy Scouts Jamboree.
In Charlottesville we witnessed long-simmering divides,
Trump drew fire citing “fine people on both sides.”
With North Korean missiles in the Sea of Japan,
Trump vowed to wipe out “Little Rocket Man.”
Soon, in the West Wing, chaos took hold,
And The Donald returned to The Apprentice of old.
He fired Yates and Comey—and Michael Flynn, too,
And the kiss-blowing Mooch—we hardly knew you.
Priebus and Bannon were also let go,
With General Kelly now running the show.
“Liddle” Bob Corker played the role of tormentor,
Calling the White House an “adult day care center,”
Trump tweeted insults to keep the upper hand,
“Cryin’ Chuck Schumer” and “lightweight” Gillibrand.
Obamacare revealed a Republican rift,
But the “big beautiful tax cut” is a lovely Christmas gift.
All of a sudden, there arose such a clatter,
POTUS jumped
up to see what was the matter.
When, who should appear on the South Lawn below,
But Special Counsel Mueller with his lawyers in tow.
His Russia investigation quickly intensifying,
After adviser Michael Flynn admitted to lying.
POTUS dismissed the probe as simply a stunt,
It’s “phony,” “a hoax,” “a political witch hunt.”
Speaking for Myself Page 10