Hope Hicks: A witness to Trump's rise
Story highlights
- Hicks has spent about five years working for the Trumps
- She has been a constant presence by the President's side
Washington (CNN)It took Hope Hicks seven years to go from college graduate to White House communications director.
She
spent about five of those years working for the Trumps, developing a
strong relationship with the future US President and his family, and now
stands as one of President Donald Trump's longest-serving and most
trusted aides.
But it's that role as a top Trump confidante, with an office steps from the Oval Office, that is landing her in special counsel Robert Mueller's hot seat.
CNN recently reported that she would be interviewed around Thanksgiving
as part of the probe into whether the Trump campaign aided Russia in
meddling in the 2016 election, though it's unclear if she has already
gone in. Trump and other top officials have denied any wrongdoing.
Hicks has been there through it all.
The
29-year-old was one of Trump's first hires as he assembled a lean team
of aides who would launch his improbable presidential campaign. From
then, until his election, she was a constant presence by his side --
traveling to nearly every rally, hovering within earshot during
interviews and always prepared to type out a bombastic tweet as dictated
by her boss.
There was never any
question that "Hopie," as Trump affectionately refers to his longtime
communications aide, would follow Trump to the White House once he
clinched victory -- the only question was, in what capacity?
Doesn't fit the mold
Hicks
doesn't fit the mold of a top communications aide. She's never held a
press briefing. Never appeared on TV to talk up or defend her boss. And
she remains reluctant to talk to reporters on the record -- almost
always preferring to speak under the cover of anonymity or through
emailed statements.
But in the unconventional Trump White House, Hicks has checked the only boxes that matter: Trump trusts her -- and she gets him.
Her
relationship with the President -- one built on loyalty, trust and time
-- was the critical factor that landed her in the role of White House
communications director after serving the first seven months as White
House director of strategic communications, according to a half-dozen of
Hicks' current and former colleagues who spoke to CNN. Hicks declined
to be interviewed for this article.
The
pick marked a 180-degree turn from the White House's earlier attempts
to install a seasoned Republican strategist in the communications
director post and was a tacit acknowledgment that wooing such a
candidate was likely not in the cards, and, perhaps, simply foolhardy.
Mike
Dubke, who did not respond to an interview request, was one such
veteran GOP communicator. And his tenure ended just three months after
he failed to develop a close relationship with the President, and during
which his attempts to craft and implement cohesive messaging plans were
repeatedly blown up by a stray tweet or off-hand remark by the
President.
Trump could not be
coaxed into keeping with the messages his own communications shop rolled
out. And after attempts to woo other veteran GOP strategists failed,
and Anthony Scaramucci -- who, while not a veteran GOP strategist, was a
successful TV surrogate for the President -- flamed out after just 10
days, the President and his close aides ultimately landed on Hicks.
"Who
could possibly make more sense to be the communications director than
Hope Hicks?" said one senior White House official, explaining the
thinking at the time.
It was an
acknowledgment that ultimately, Trump will always be his own top
communications strategist and, at least, Hicks' selection helped put the
President and his press shop on the same page.
"Anybody
who thinks of the press or communications task as 'wrangling' is
pursuing it from the 100% wrong direction ... with respect to the
President," said the official, who requested anonymity to candidly
discuss the White House's internal workings. "This is 100% the right
model."
But that new model, with Hicks as communications director, is in many ways still a work in progress.
White
House officials continue to be blindsided by some of the President's
off-hand remarks or tweets, whether he is moving the goalposts on policy
issues or contradicting White House messaging, and Republicans on
Capitol Hill continue to grumble about lackluster coordination in
advancing policy priorities.
And
with Hicks at the helm, the White House communications department has
yet to demonstrate the kind of long-term messaging strategy
traditionally needed to advance the President's policy agenda.
Several
White House officials, though, said that White House messaging, policy
roll-outs and long-term communication strategies have markedly improved
under Hicks' leadership.
"People
underestimate the level of actual communication skill that she has,"
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said, noting that the
29-year-old is "much further ahead ... than a lot of people her age" and
"one of the most naturally talented communications professionals."
But
a career in political communications was not something Hicks had
explored until she found herself at the center of the biggest and
longest-lasting political story in decades.
From modeling to PR to the White House
Hicks
pre-political life included working as a model -- landing on the cover
of a spinoff of the "Gossip Girl" books and at least one Ralph Lauren ad
-- and testing out an acting career. But she dove into public relations
soon after graduating from Southern Methodist University, landing at
the PR firm Hiltzik Strategies in 2012 after meeting the firm's founder,
Matthew Hiltzik, at a Super Bowl event. Her father, Paul Hicks, was the
NFL's vice president for communications and public affairs at the time.
At
Hiltzik Strategies -- where her former boss said she was "diligent" and
"hardworking" -- Hicks quickly got to work for several of the firm's
clients, including Ivanka Trump. The two clicked and by 2014, the eldest
Trump daughter stole Hicks away from Hiltzik and brought her to Trump
Tower, working for the Trump Organization and her fashion and lifestyle
brand.
Soon enough, the Greenwich,
Connecticut, native was working directly for the Trump patriarch, which
led to Trump in 2015 asking her -- no, telling her she would join him
as his campaign press secretary.
"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 last year.
Her role on the
campaign, though, was a far-cry from the job of presidential campaign
press secretary -- a role Trump largely handled himself through his
headline-grabbing comments and frequent interviews with the press.
Instead,
Hicks helped Trump in a way that met his needs, from printing articles
about him that he would want to read to readily typing out tweets
dictated by the Twitter-savvy candidate. When Trump wanted to
double-check the number of states he had won to date in the middle of an
interview, Hicks could always provide quick confirmation with a quick
"20" or "yes, sir."
Behind the
scenes, top campaign aides also frequently relied on Hicks to find the
best way to convey bad news to the President, a former senior campaign
official recalled.
"Trump doesn't take it personally coming from her," said the former aide, who remains close to the White House.
Though
soft-spoken and reserved, Hicks also readily channeled her boss's
combativeness with the press, emailing reporters about their "dishonest"
reporting, often focusing on accounts of the enthusiasm and size of
Trump's crowds.
And through that
campaign experience, Hicks became a student in Trump's school of
punching back, channeling with ease his instincts for pushback and a
vocabulary flush with superlatives.
The
result is a White House communications director with an unrivaled
understanding of the lens through which Trump views the media landscape.
"She, I think, understands things
that he will like and won't like, but also things that kind of fit into
his voice," said Sanders, the White House press secretary.
Loyalty
Stephen
Miller, the President's senior adviser and chief speechwriter, praised
Hicks in a statement: "Hope -- here from the beginning -- has a loyalty
equaled only by her skill."
That
loyalty, which every current and former colleague contacted for this
story touted, was tested and strengthened through 17 months of unending
controversy on the campaign trail that culminated in an audio tape of
Trump bragging about kissing and groping women without their consent and
allegations by more than a dozen women of similar behavior, according
to former campaign officials.
Their
bond deepened by those tests, Trump continues to rely on Hicks as a
sounding board at the White House, aides said, in large part because
Trump trusts that his student shares his combative instincts and because
Hicks has never used her position as an opportunity to push a political
or self-serving agenda.
"She
didn't come in here with a list of policy objectives she's trying to
force on him and she's not somebody who's in the spotlight and is trying
to raise her profile. She's really here because she believes in the
President and wants him to be successful," Sanders said.
Hicks
has, like few others, learned and best put into practice the golden
rule of working for Trump that she often imparted on incoming staffers,
but that many have failed to internalize: "This is all about Mr. Trump,"
as one former top campaign staffer recalled.
The
mantra has enabled Hicks to weather every campaign and White House
staff shakeup, making her among the handful of aides who have been at
Trump's side at the Trump Organization, at every step of the campaign
and inside the West Wing -- which could also make her a star witness in
Mueller's investigation.
"In all
the key junctures, she's there," said Michael Zeldin, a former federal
prosecutor who served as special assistant to Mueller at the Justice
Department.
Hicks was aboard Air
Force One when the initial misleading statement about Donald Trump Jr.'s
meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower was crafted. And, like few
others, she could also speak to whether the elder Trump was aware at
the time of his son's meeting with the Russian lawyer whom Trump Jr.
believed would provide "incriminating" information about Hillary Clinton
from the Russian government.
From
questions of collusion and contact with the Russians during the campaign
to Trump's firing of acting Attorney General Sally Yates and FBI
Director James Comey, Hicks can help fill in the blanks in what Zeldin
assessed to be a "witness-driven" investigation.
The
interview and any subsequent role she may have in the federal
investigation could be the biggest test of loyalty for the 29-year-old
aide whose fortune has been tethered to Trump's.
"I'm
sure she's a reluctant witness and the job of Bob Trout, her lawyer, is
to say, 'Hope, the only person you have to be loyal to in these
interviews is yourself,' " Zeldin said. "Hopefully for her, she tells
the truth."
No comments:
Post a Comment