For once this week, President Donald Trump appears to have done something right after one gaffe after another following the Virginia violence. On Tuesday, he appointed 28-year-old Hope Hicks as the new White House communications director.
Sr. communications adviser Hope Hicks likely to take on role of White House communications director, sources say https://t.co/ST36KjPKqB pic.twitter.com/tnSV68epRQ
— CNN (@CNN) August 16, 2017
He did not hire back Anthony Scaramucci, the loud-mouth Wall Street financier who lasted only 10 days on the job. Hicks is apparently the opposite of Scaramucci as she has been described by the New York Daily News as one of the most loyal and silent staff of the president.
Trump’s longest-serving aide
Hicks is a public relations practitioner from Connecticut who was employed by Ivanka Trump before she became one of the longest-serving aides of Trump. She served as press secretary during the 2016 campaign and as director of strategic communications before her promotion.
Although she is on Twitter, Hicks has only posted thrice to retweet Trump. However, she should brace for intrigues and controversies which come with the job. In fact, just hours after her appointment, John Fugelsang described her as the most qualified candidate with the least actual experience and the blindest obedience.
She is said to avoid scandals that hound other White House officials by refusing interview request or appear on TV.
A tweet, however, from Claude Taylor who claimed that Hicks had an affair with a married man.
Is Hope Hicks going to communicate about her year long affair with the very married Corey Lewandowski? #hypocrites pic.twitter.com/5cfqGfT10O
— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) August 16, 2017
Political family
Fortune reported that Hicks is from a political family.
Her mother as a legislative assistant to a Tennessee Democrat, while her father was chief of staff to a congressman from Connecticut. A graduate of the Southern Methodist University, she worked as PR first for Ivanka’s fashion line before Trump took her in his campaign. She used to be a child model for Ralph Lauren, according to Heavy.com.
Hicks was co-captain of the Greenwich High School and was a lacrosse player during her four years in college. As an 11-year-old, she was the model for a series of novels about a 10-year-old girl who time-traveled under the Hourglass Adventures.
According to Politico, she dines with Ivanka and Jared Kushner, hinting she is treated like family. While former Press Secretary Sean Spicer, a Catholic, was excluded by Trump from his visit to Pope Francis, Hicks was part of the team that joined the pontiff in Vatican, although she facilitated Trump’s rebuke of Pope Francis.
She was called by Town and Country Magazine an enigma for being the author of a line in Trump’s speech when the president stated, “We are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms.”
