trump s campaign and later in the white house as director of message strategy. tonight, he is suing trump saying the president wants to stop him from getting out his own message. he does not respond well to weakness that he only responds to strength. so i wanted to stand up and say i m not going to be pushed into a corner, bullied on this and stand up for myself. trump is furious with simms over a tell-all book simms wrote with stories of chaos and deceit in the west wing. after simms went on a book tour trump said he was a low level staffer who pretended to be an insider when he was not nothing more than a gopher. he is a mess. the trump campaign filed an arbitration claim saying he violated his non-disclosure agreement. simms says he is suing trump to stop the trump campaign in the white house from trying to silence him. i served him faithfully. i worked for the american people. that s essentially what the suit
president trump describes the west wing. cliff sims admits he caused some of the mayhem himself. he lays it out in a new tell-all book called team of vipers, my 500 extraordinary days in the trump white house which is out today. cliff sims joins us. he was an assistant to the president in charge of the white house message strategy. that s interesting. it s a fun job. great to have you. it s a fascinating book, getting so much attention because you name names in there. you talk about the general vibe in the white house. you call it a team of vipers. mm-hmm. here s what you write. so many people, i think, particularly critics of president trump say why would anybody work there knowing all of this? right. here s what you start with. most of us came to washington convinced of the justice of our cause and our principles, certain our moral compasses were true. proximity to power changes that. donald trump changes that. the once clear lines between right and wrong, good and evil
out of a journalism background. so he was certainly taking notes. he was also kind of accessible to some members of the media. he sat in the one area of the white house we were able to go into and talk to folks. he writes about an interesting couple of moments and how the president thought about being presidential. as the white house director of message strategy, you guys write, simms regularly met donald trump at the private elevator of the residence and accompanied him to videotapes carrying a can of hair spray for the boss. at one such taping about an hour after trump tweeted he sought feedback from simms and sean spicer. he quotes the president as saying they re going to say it s not presidential, but you know what? it s modern day presidential. and bob, i wonder how that strikes you. well, it captures pruesident
trump is rewarding him by publicly rebuking him in this way. it s extraordinary. peter, this is made in america theme week at the white house. today was about health care and voting rights or suppression. does the president show awareness of the fact that like this is going to be our lead story and every lead story tonight when he calls you in for a conversation like this? well, you know, six months in, this has been the story of his administration time after type, they set a message strategy and then he decides to say what he decides to say. if you re a staff member working for a president like that, i think they ve learned to roll with the flow. and you know, they recognize he is his own spokesman and wants to be the person defending and explaining himself and willing to do it even if it does step on other people s plans for what the message of the day should
donald trump wants and donald trump is rewarding him by publicly rebuking him in this way. it s extraordinary. peter, this is made in america theme week at the white house. today was about health care and voting rights or suppression. does the president show awareness of the fact that like this is going to be our lead story and every lead story tonight when he calls you in for a conversation like this? well, you know, six months in, this has been the story of his administration time after type, they set a message strategy and then he decides to say what he decides to say. if you re a staff member working for a president like that, i think they ve learned to roll with the flow. and you know, they recognize he is his own spokesman and wants to be the person defending and explaining himself and willing to do it even if it does step on other people s plans for what the message of the day should be. i think that i think he thinks we can walk and chew gum at the same time and we can pa