Stephanie Grisham has moved to a remote, Trump-loving Kansas town, where she's crafting an argument against the former president that respects her neighbor's devotion to him.

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

One of the nation's most visible anti-Trump Republicans has moved to a rural, deep-red Kansas town. Now Stephanie Grisham wants her new neighbors to rethink their support for the former president. Frank Morris of member station KCUR reports.

FRANK MORRIS, BYLINE: Stephanie Grisham stands squarely with Donald Trump on gun rights and immigration. She was a true believer, signed on to the 2016 campaign and served four years as first lady Melania Trump's press secretary, doubling as White House press secretary part of that time. But Grisham says she gradually soured on Trump. Then when Melania Trump refused to condemn the violence of the Capitol insurrection, Grisham quit, packed up her two little dogs and moved to Plainville, Kan.

STEPHANIE GRISHAM: It was just this really peaceful place that I thought would be a perfect place to kind of get over Trump world.

MORRIS: Plainville is a remote little prairie town where people tend to work long hours in hard, physical jobs. Grisham's not from here, but her sister married a local guy and lives here with her two kids. Grisham bought an old house across the street from her sister and fixed it up.

GRISHAM: Then I started to write my book, and I kept thinking, like, oh, what's going to happen here? Am I going to have, like, Trump signs in my yard one morning or - you know? I'm not going to lie; this is a very big Second Amendment part of the country, and so I'm not going to lie that I thought, like, should I learn how to shoot a gun myself? Do I need protection? You know, I mean, those thoughts went through my head.

MORRIS: That's because she wrote a book that paints a very unflattering picture of Donald Trump.

GRISHAM: I mean, he's the ultimate con man.

MORRIS: And then she went on TV to promote that book.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: ...On January 6. She saw a lot; now she's saying a lot. Her bombshell new book is already trending.

CANDACE RACHEL: She's got to be all kinds of brave to do what she did.

MORRIS: That's Plainville Times editor Candace Rachel. She says Trump won this county with 86% of the vote in 2020 and that many here adore the former president.

RACHEL: He's it. A lot of people in this town think he's the savior.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Shame on you (laughter).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: A Miss Francis Benedict? (ph).

MORRIS: In a small town like Plainville, a new face stands out. And at the Short Stop gas station, a lot of people are just glad someone moved in here and fixed up a house. But others like Laurie Smith are leery of their new neighbor.

LAURIE SMITH: We just heard that she worked for Trump and then that she kind of, like, basically turned on him or something or said all of his bad stuff, I guess.

MORRIS: Grisham gets around Plainville. She shops at the farm supply store, frequents the two restaurants and attends school sporting events. But town veterinarian Lauren Mack says Grisham keeps a relatively low profile.

LAUREN MACK: It cracks me up sometimes 'cause I'm like, well, it's kind of a big deal. But all right. And out here, nobody really cares. She hides in plain sight here.

MORRIS: But Grisham toggles back and forth between relative obscurity in Plainville and being a minor celebrity on national TV. Recently, she co-hosted ABC's "The View" and tried suggesting that denigrating Trump supporters like her Plainville neighbors only strengthens political divisions.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE VIEW")

GRISHAM: We can't call people, Republicans, these names. And you can't denigrate my neighbors in the Midwest...

SUNNY HOSTIN: Marjorie Taylor Greene is an idiot.

(CROSSTALK)

MORRIS: Stephanie Grisham says her neighbors deserve respect, and she's crafting a message for those who continue to embrace Donald Trump.

GRISHAM: And I want to say, I understand that. I thought he was amazing. But I promise you, he's not in your corner; he's in Donald Trump's corner, period.

MORRIS: If the ex-president runs again and wins, Grisham says she thinks Trump would use a second term to exact revenge on anyone who's not in his corner - that is, people like her.

For NPR News, I'm Frank Morris in Plainville, Kan. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.