Donald Trump's staff would play the song Memory from the Broadway musical Cats to soothe the former US President when he was stressed, it has been revealed.
Stephanie Grisham, who served as his White House press secretary and communications director and as Melania Trump ’s chief of staff, said on Tuesday that former US President Trump's temper was "scary".
She continued: "He’d snap and almost lose control.”
Grisham recently published a tell-all book and noted that when Trump descended into turmoil, his staff resorted to summoning an aide, nicknamed the "Music Man", to play songs from musicals they knew would soothe him, namely Memory from the Broadway musical Cats.
Her remarks came as a result of ex-aide, Cassidy Hutchinson speaking in staggering detail to the House select committee hearing on Tuesday about Trump's character.
She portrayed an unhinged leader who often veered wildly out of control.
The committee were investigating the January 6 attacks on Capitol Hill but Trump's character was also destroyed during the hearing.
The New York Times reported that in Grisham's memoir, I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in the Trump White House, "Mr Trump's handlers designated an unnamed White House official known as the 'Music Man' to play him his favourite show tunes, including 'Memory' from Cats, to pull him from the brink of rage".
The paper identified the "Music Man" as Max Miller.
Miller is a former boyfriend of Grisham who was also a Trump aide and now a Republican candidate for Congress in Ohio.
Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker wrote that Trump’s need to be comforted by Broadway music "degrades both the office of the Presidency and a great American institution".
Betty Buckley, the award-winning actress who plays Grizabella in Cats and sings Memory, told CNN‘s Jim Acosta that his desire to have the song plated indicates that Trump’s soul is “so damaged.”
She thinks Trump's soul is so damaged and she feels that the lyrics by Trevor Nunn, and the music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, "resonates with what remains of the window into whatever soul he might actually have”.
She said Grizabella is a character that is about longing, the need to be touched and the need to connect.
Buckley continues: "I guess underneath it all that’s what’s happening here [with Trump].”
Trump bombarded his new social media site during the hearing on Tuesday with posts attacking Ms Hutchinson and denying her anecdotes.
