Gay staffer for Melania Trump fired by White House over his ‘lively Grindr account’
Former first lady Melania Trump addresses the Republican National Convention from the Rose Garden at the White House on 25 August 2020 in Washington, DC. (Getty/Alex Wong)
A gay White House staffer in Melania Trump’s office was let go after his “lively” Grindr account was discovered, according to an explosive tell-all memoir.
Stephanie Grisham – the former White House communications director and press secretary and chief of staff for first lady Melania Trump – detailed the claims in her book I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in the Trump White House.
She claimed in her memoir that she was told in early 2018 by Lindsay Reynolds, Melania’s chief of staff, that one of her closest personal friends in the White House was fired because of an “issue with his security clearance”, Insider reported.
Grisham recalled this being odd as the individual worked for the Trumps for “more than three years”.
She wrote that the gay man, who she didn’t name, was “walked out of the White House by a woman from human resources” and was followed by an “armed Secret Service agent”. She added that no one had seemingly “given a second thought” about the staffer.
But she said she later found out that the man was fired because it was discovered that he used the dating app, Grindr.
“Whoever determined security clearances had come across his Grindr account and decided that some of the stuff on it would be ‘personally embarrassing’ to Mrs Trump,” Grisham wrote, Insider reported.
Grisham wrote that she “couldn’t get over that level of bias” and blamed Melania for the firing, saying the first lady “could have done something” but didn’t.
“If she had really wanted a staff member back on her team, if she had been truly outraged, she could have done something,” Grisham said. “She didn’t.”
She wrote: “If the person had truly been removed solely because he was gay and have a lively Grindr account, that was wrong.
“This was a White House filled with adulterers. I had a DUI, and they let me stay.”
Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham listens to president Donald Trump talk to reporters before he departs the White House on 8 November 2019. (Getty/Chip Somodevilla)
According to ABC News, several White House staff members were let go or reassigned because of issues relating to their security clearances in March 2018. This included at least one person employed in the office of the first lady who was relieved of duty, sources told ABC News.
The actions came in the wake of domestic abuse allegations against former White House staff secretary Rob Porter.
CNN reported Grisham resigned from her role, effective immediately, in the wake of the violent Capitol riots in January. She initially started working for the Trumps in 2015 as a press wrangler on his presidential campaign trail before entering the White House as a deputy press secretary.
