Sean Spicer’s memoir proves how beneficial it is to be fired from the White House these days

With the number of staff members rolling in and out, it’s safe to say we may soon face a confessional fatigue

Spicer is one of a cavalcade of Trump former staff and advisers with a book in them (Getty)

Last night Sean Spicer took a grilling from Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis as part of his tour to promote his memoir The Briefing. Much as he did in the White House press room, he squirmed as Maitlis finally held him down to answer for stories such as the Great Inauguration Attendance Lie and his colleague Kellyanne Conway’s use of the term “alternative facts”.

While the Trump presidency has not been great for much of America, nor Theresa May’s hopes of a US-UK trade deal, it’s safe to say it has been a great boost to former Trump colleagues looking to get into the book trade.

We’ve seen a cavalcade of staff and advisers march into the White House and head straight back out again. Sean Spicer, Rex Tillerson, James Comey, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka – I could go on. And with their exit from the White House, there is more of an appetite than ever to find out what is truly happening behind closed doors.

And so brings the memoirs. It started with Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury, a book that sent shockwaves through the press pack with its scandalous anecdotes and insider look. While Wolff didn’t work with the president, he did have access like no one else at the time.

Following this, James Comey, the former FBI director who found out he was dismissed by the president in May 2017 when he saw it on a television news report as he was briefing agents in Los Angeles, released his book entitled A Higher Loyalty, where he discusses in depth the decision he made in the runup to Trump’s eventual election.

Anthony Scaramucci, who served as White House director of communications for 10 days in 2017 before being dismissed (for full disclosure, I was on holiday during this time and missed his entire hiring and firing), is due to release his version of events via book form in October this year.

Sean Spicer’s book doubtless goes into the ins and outs of his time with Trump. Spicer, speaking to British media as part of his book tour, actually seemed to recognise the version of him that we saw – bumbling and ill-prepared – as he talked often of his missteps and days he’d like to “do over”. In the same Newsnight interview, he mentions how lonely he felt in his position “because no one was happy with me”.

It’s understandable how in these times, if you were part of an administration like Donald Trump’s, you’d like to make records of the ins and outs. (Perhaps not even for your own memory but for any potential legal problems you may face sooner or later.) But with the number of staff members rolling in and out of the White House, it’s safe to say we may soon face a confessional fatigue.

Much like Twitter – the app Trump clings to for dear life – the life cycle of his presidency has a momentum that other presidencies seemed to lack. Each 24 hours feel simultaneously like three days and four hours, both in its tedium and in the cyclical nature of how the stories grow. The press awaits his every caps lock tweet, ready to hone in on a fresh story that will surely change hours later when he clarifies again via 280 characters.

This environment is reflected in his hiring and firing and the mass appeal within publishing to read what is going on from those that were in the know. The knowledge of each book’s release must hit a nerve with Trump, who, though not a private man, is certainly concerned with being in control of the fallout.

When Fire and Fury was released, Trump went as far as to call the author Michael Wolff “mentally deranged” and said that Wolff “knowingly writes false information”. Anyone who saw the aftermath of Fire and Fury and follows the presidency in any capacity can see that it’s cracked around the edges, just waiting for someone to knock it at a weak spot and spill its contents.

And we’ve seen similar with Brexit in the UK. It’s not as though the release of tell-all books after a major political news event is a new phenomenon. Books were hurriedly released after the referendum result as a quick-fire analysis on what the heck happened to a vote that many in the Remain camp thought they had in the bag.

The rapidity in which books following Trump are being released is to be expected. It’s what happens in a few years’ time, what narratives we see published and what key figureheads have been stockpiling anecdotes, that will be the real test of Trump’s temper and stability.