Hope Hicks Is Formally Named White House Communications Director

The 28-year-old is the new Communications Director of the Trump administration.

But Hicks isn’t new to the team: She’s been with Trump since he launched his presidential campaign in June 2015.

 

She didn’t intend on going into politics.

Hicks was working for Ivanka Trump’s fashion line when she was pulled aside by Donald.

“Mr. Trump looked at me and said, ‘I’m thinking about running for president, and you’re going to be my press secretary,’” Hicks told New York magazine.

“I think it’s ‘the year of the outsider.’ It helps to have people with an outsider perspective.”

She played college lacrosse.

 

Hicks was on the varsity lacrosse team for all four years of college at Southern Methodist University.

“She is highly intelligent and brought that to the field in every game.

When needed, she carried the team and would score, but preferred to have assists,” former lacrosse coach Liz Holmes told the Washington Post.

She helped Trump tweet.

As the presidential candidate’s press secretary, she took dictation from Trump for his tweets, according to The Washington Post.

She’s a former model.

 

Hicks was a Ralph Lauren model, once served as a model for Ivanka’s collection, and even appeared on the book cover for a Gossip Girl spinoff, The It Girl.

Public relations runs in the family.

Her father, Paul B. Hicks III, served as executive vice president of communications at the NFL.

Her grandfather was the general manager of public relations for Texaco. Hicks, it seems, was destined for PR.

 

NEW YORK TIMES

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

SEPT. 14, 2017

Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, on Monday during a White House memorial for the 9/11 attacks. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s longest serving advisers working in the White House, was formally named communications director on Tuesday, a title that most accurately describes the role she has played for years.

Ms. Hicks’ appointment was one of a handful announced.

Mercedes Schlapp, a Republican strategist, and former Fox News contributor, will become the senior adviser for strategic communications, adding a new senior staff member to the reshuffled communications team.

 It was not immediately clear how Ms. Schlapp’s role would intersect with that of Ms. Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary.

Jessica Ditto, another campaign hand who has served as deputy communications director, is expected to continue in that role.

But Ms. Hicks, who is perhaps the most press-shy member of the Trump administration, has been essentially filling the role of Mr. Trump’s communications director since her days on his campaign when she was one of the only staff members.

Until she took over the communications director role in an interim capacity, she was almost constantly by the president’s side when he traveled, and she held sway over what interviews he gave.

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Outside of Mr. Trump’s family members and his longtime security chief, Keith Schiller, who will leave the White House in the next few weeks, Ms. Hicks is his most trusted aide.

Other changes that were announced appeared aimed in part at sending a message of continuity to a communications team that has been buffeted by nearly constant change for the past month.

Raj Shah, who worked at the Republican National Committee and was seen as close to the previous press secretary, Sean Spicer, was elevated to principal deputy press secretary. Steven Cheung, who worked on the Trump campaign, will be the director of strategic response.

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