Virtually Unknown WH Aide Bags 7-Figure Deal for Tell-All Book
A little-known White House aide is hoping to make a big splash with a book that portrays what he describes as the vicious behind-the-scenes infighting that has been part of the Trump administration.
The book, “Team of Vipers,” will be published in January, according to The New York Times.
The book was written by Cliff Sims, who was the CEO of Yellowhammer Media in Alabama before he joined the Trump campaign in 2016 and then moved to the White House to work in the communications office.
Based on a source it did not name, the Times said Sims received a seven-figure advance for the book.
“He saw how Trump handled the challenges of the office, and he learned from Trump himself how he saw the world,” said a statement from Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press. “His book offers never-revealed scenes from this most unorthodox of White Houses — and will stand as a definitive history of an unforgettable era.”
Sims, who kept extensive notes on what he saw and heard at the White House, left the administration at the time Chief of Staff John Kelly took over his current job.
The Times quoted what it said was the author’s note for the book.
“I suspect that posterity will look back on this bizarre time in history like we were living on the pages of a Dickens novel,” the note said.
“Lincoln famously had his Team of Rivals. Trump had his Team of Vipers. We served. We fought. We brought our egos. We brought our personal agendas and vendettas. We were ruthless. And some of us, I assume, were good people,” the note added.
“I was there. This is what I saw. And, unlike the many leakers in the White House, I have put my name on it,” Sims wrote.
Promotional material for the book that was posted on Amazon said Sims, who served as Special Assistant to the President and Director of White House Message Strategy, “found himself pulled into the president’s inner circle as a confidante, an errand boy, an advisor, a punching bag, and a friend. Sometimes all in the same conversation.”
Sims “saw how Trump handled the challenges of the office, and he learned from Trump himself how he saw the world,” the promotional material said.
“For 500 days, Sims also witnessed first-hand the infighting and leaking, the anger, joy, and recriminations. He had a role in some of the president’s biggest successes, and he shared the blame for some of his administration’s worst disasters. He gained key, often surprising insights into the players of the Trump West Wing, from Jared Kushner and John Kelly to Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway,” the book description said.
“Sims stood with the president in the eye of the storm raging around him, and now he tells the story that no one else has written — because no one else could,” the description said. “The story of what it was really like in the West Wing as a member of the president’s team. The story of power and palace intrigue, backstabbing and bold victories, as well as painful moral compromises, occasionally with yourself.”
The Alabama Daily News said that after the book’s initial rollout Jan. 29, Sims will be meeting with friends in his native Alabama.
“I’m excited to make public what I’ve been spending a lot of my time working on the last few months. On Jan. 29, a memoir of my time on the Trump campaign and in the White House will be published by St. Martin’s Press,” The Daily News quoted him as saying in an email.
“We are making plans for an event in Birmingham on Saturday evening, Feb. 9, so please save that date and additional details will be forthcoming,” he wrote.
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