Despite receiving a letter threatening various charges, Michael Wolff’s tell-all book about President Trump’s first year in office, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House is still a go at Henry Holt and Co. Magazines and political websites have been previewing the book ahead of its January 9th publication with excerpts detailing the Trump administration’s rocky transition and first year in office, including a recent article in the British edition of GQ. Titled “How Donald Trump’s White House team handles his giant ego,” it reveals Trump’s first choices for press secretary before he ultimately settled on Sean Spicer.
According to Wolff, Spicer was never one of Trump’s original choices because he wanted somebody who was a “star.” Or, to be more precise, he thought the press secretary “ought to be a good-looking woman” — or Tucker Carlson:
The conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, who had spoken at the Republican National Convention in 2016, was on the list, as was Ann Coulter. Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo was also under consideration. (This was television, the president-elect said, and it ought to be a good-looking woman.) When none of those ideas panned out, the job was offered to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who turned it down.
Ingraham has since gone on to host her own show at Fox News, while Coulter has essentially turned on the president and his administration. (Bartiromo’s name gained some notice with her public support for then-embattled boss Roger Ailes, but not so much since.) And Carlson? Well, he’s raving about “major websites attacking white people” and staring into Speaker Paul Ryan’s soul week nights in what used to be Megyn Kelly’s timeslot. As for Spicer and his eventual replacement Sarah Sanders, both have become stars in their own right, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(Via GQ)