Madeleine Westerhout has unfailingly positive things to say about President Donald Trump and his wife and children.
Well ... mostly.
This is the big twist of Westerhout's life: The 29-year-old, who had worked as Trump's executive assistant since he entered the White House and was eventually promoted to director of Oval Office operations, was forced out last summer after sharing intimate details about the Trumps at an off-the-record dinner with reporters.
Among the revelations, according to other accounts?
That she felt she had a stronger relationship with President Trump than his daughters, Tiffany or Ivanka, the latter of whom is also a senior adviser.
Westerhout reportedly said that Trump felt Tiffany was overweight and didn’t like being photographed with her because of that. ("I love Tiffany, doing great!" the president soon tweeted.)
Word spread quickly around the White House of what Westerhout had said, and she was ousted in late August 2019. She did not speak publicly, save for a brief tweet of her own about her gratitude for her time in the administration.
Almost exactly a year later, Westerhout is back with a story to tell — about her time in the White House, about the night that cost her her job and the personal turmoil that followed.
"As much as I wish this dinner didn't happen and things didn't end the way they did, I am really glad that I learned a lot from this," she tells PEOPLE of Off the Record, which was released Tuesday.
"I was devastated after I lost my job," Westerhout says. "And I realized that I was nowhere near ready to jump into something new, and I wanted to take the time to process what happened. And I think this book reads almost like my diary."
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