Donald Trump Surrounds Himself With 'Vulnerable People' Who 'Feel Ingratiated Towards Him,' Former Aide Reveals
Aug. 1 2023, Updated 3:52 p.m. ET
Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham shared why she thinks no one has turned on Donald Trump just yet.
While speaking about the classified documents case — Trump was indicted and arrested after keeping materials post-presidency — she said she thinks she knows why the former president’s aides Carlos De Oliveira and Walt Nauta have stuck by his side throughout his legal woes.
“I think that this is a design that Trump does to people,” she said on CNN’s Erin Burnett Out Front. “I think he chooses and selects vulnerable people to surround him, and I’m putting myself in that, in that group by the way."
Grisham is confident De Oliveira will be loyal to the former president, 77, since he "worked his way up" after starting out as a valet.
“He really owes Trump, this is what he does,” Grisham stated. “He chooses people who have … work their way up and we feel ingratiated towards him and like we owe him, and then it’s really scary the thought of turning on Trump right now.”
“His lawyer is being paid for right now and he has a job,” she added. “You get out into that world without the Trump cushion, and it’s very scary and it’s not very friendly, I’ve got to tell you. It’s not lucrative and you have to think about, ‘How am I going to support my family? How will I ever pay for these legal bills?’”
Last week, De Oliveira was indicted on three criminal charges, alongside Trump and Nauta, in a superseding indictment in the classified documents case. De Oliveira was hired as the Mar-a-Lago manager in January 2022, the indictment revealed.
He's been accused of helping Trump aide Nauta, who has also been indicted, move boxes containing secret files. In the superseding indictment, De Oliveira is accused of lying to FBI investigators when he voluntary told them he had no information about the boxes.
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As OK! previously reported, Trump continues to maintain his innocence.
"This is nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and those around him," Steven Cheung said in a statement following the announcement of the new allegations.