Former First Lady Melania Trump refused to meet with Republican Rep. Steve Scalise at the White House after he was shot in 2017 at a congressional baseball practice because she’d already visited him once in the hospital, according to a new book, an early copy of which was obtained by Insider.
Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who also served as Melania Trump’s chief of staff, wrote that Scalise and his family went to the White House for an unscheduled visit shortly after Scalise had recovered from the shooting.
Grisham wrote that the first lady’s staff asked her if she wanted to visit the Scalises, who were gathered in the Blue Room, and that she declined.
“Her response was, ‘No, I already said hello,’” Grisham wrote. The first lady was referring to when she and then-President Donald Trump visited Scalise at the hospital when he was recovering from the shooting. According to Grisham’s book, Melania Trump’s response became a running joke in the East Wing.
“Whenever the first lady said no to something, we would say to each other, 'Well, she already said hello!’” Grisham wrote. …
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Grisham served as Melania Trump’s chief of staff before going on to
become the third Trump White House press secretary, following Sean
Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She served in the role from July 2019
to April 2020 and drew sharp criticism for not holding a single press
briefing in that time. …