I suppose you could say that Stephanie Grisham, the largely invisible press secretary for Donald Trump, started drinking the president’s Kool-Aid when she was still in Arizona and helping to put together rallies for then candidate Trump. 

But what may have started out as an innocent experimentation – a sip here, a gulp there – seems to have developed into an addiction. 

Before Grisham got hooked on Trump she worked for a long time within Arizona politics, most notably for former Attorney General Tom Horne, former House Speaker David Gowan and for the Republican majority of the Arizona House. 

After the election she was named a special adviser for operations and served on Trump's transition team and eventually became press secretary for first lady Melania Trump. 

Her work and history in Arizona were laid out in depth in an article by The Arizona Republic’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen. 

She was known in Arizona as a fierce defender of her employers.  One Democratic lawmaker told the Republic, "In my experience down at the Legislature, she's going to do the job her superiors demand, in this case, the president.” 

A sip becomes a gulp becomes ...

One person I know in the public relations field told me that with some clients she feels like a public defender. “ As in, everybody deserves a competent defense,” is the way she put it.  While other times a job coincides with a deeply felt conviction. 

Having worked for a long time with Republicans, I’d guess that Grisham came into the Trump camp out of conviction, and sampled the president’s Kool-Aid. 

Apparently, the stuff is addictive. 

She seems now to be pumping it into her veins through an IV infuser. 

There’s no other explanation for Grisham saying of former Trump chief of staff John Kelly, "I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great President." 

This came after Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, said at a summit that he might have prevented Trump’s current impeachment troubles if he’d stayed in the job. 

"I said, whatever you do — and we were still in the process of trying to find someone to take my place — I said whatever you do, don't hire a 'yes man,' someone who won't tell you the truth — don't do that," Kelly said. " Because if you do, I believe you will be impeached." 

The president snapped back with statement – one of the many, many times he’s attacked former staffers – saying, "John Kelly never said that, he never said anything like that.  If he would have said that I would have thrown him out of the office.  He just wants to come back into the action like everybody else does." 

Four-star general versus 'genius'

Then the normally silent Grisham added, "I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great President." 

Seriously? 

While Trump was taking bone spur deferments during the Vietnam War, Kelly joined the Marine Corps. 

He rose through the ranks, having had his promotions approved again and again by Congress, retiring in 2016 as a four-start general in command of United States Southern Command.  This after 45 years of service. 

His two sons followed him into the Marine Corp, and in 2010 one of them, 29-year-old Robert, was killed in Afghanistan. 

To suggest that a man like Kelly was “unequipped to handle the genius” of Trump is not just proof that Grisham is hooked on the president’s Kool-Aid. 

It’s proof that she’s ODed. 

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.