Hope Hicks was Trump's "Model" in the White House. She was having an Affair with Porter who left because of abusing his first two wives. This must be an awful time for her. and now she is resigning too.
Hope Hicks to
Leave Post as
White House
Communications Director
Leave Post as
White House
Communications Director
The New York Times
10 mins ago
begin quote from:
Hope Hicks is
resigning from the
White House
resigning from the
White House
(CNN)White House communications director Hope Hicks, one of President Donald Trump's longest-serving and closest aides, is resigning, the White House confirmed Wednesday.
Hicks'
departure capped her meteoric rise from Trump Organization
communications aide to the upper crust of power in Washington in just a
few years, during which Hicks sought to maintain a remarkably low
profile for someone in her position.
Her
resignation will undoubtedly reverberate for months to come inside the
West Wing, where Trump will find himself for the first time in more than
three years without the constant presence of his most loyal aide -- who
is among the handful of aides who worked with Trump at his company,
during the rollicking campaign and into the White House.
Hicks' resignation came a day after she testified before the House Intelligence Committee
and said she had told white lies in the course of her duties, though
there was no indication the two were connected. A source familiar with
her thinking said she first seriously considered resigning in the wake
of the scandal involving former senior aide Rob Porter, whose public
defense Hicks helped craft while also dating him at the time.
A
tearful Hicks announced her departure to the White House communications
team Wednesday afternoon, a source inside the room told CNN. She
referenced how many years she had worked for Trump, said she has always
wanted the best for him and that she felt like now was the right time to
go -- which some in the room took as a reference to the speculation
she's leaving in light of her testimony. She thanked the team and said
she will miss them all.
Hicks won't leave immediately but she expected to depart in the next few weeks.
The
President, who one source said found out on Wednesday that she had made
a final decision to leave, praised Hicks as "outstanding."
"She
is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person. I will
miss having her by my side but when she approached me about pursuing
other opportunities, I totally understood. I am sure we will work
together again in the future," Trump said in a written statement on
Wednesday.
In a statement, Hicks
thanked Trump and the administration, saying: "There are no words to
adequately express my gratitude to President Trump. I wish the President
and his administration the very best as he continues to lead our
country."
The New York Times first reported her departure.
Void created
It
was not immediately clear who will replace Hicks as White House
communications director -- a position that has now been filled by four
individuals -- but some of Hicks' duties have increasingly been filled over the last two months by Mercedes Schlapp,
the senior adviser for strategic communications. While Hicks was busy
fighting the crisis of the day at the President's side or meeting with
her lawyers, Schlapp stepped in to lead the communications team, sources
told CNN earlier this month.
Regardless
of who replaces her, the White House will be hard-pressed to find
another aide who understands the President and knows how to work with
him as well as Hicks does. Trump allies digested the news with surprise,
finding it hard to imagine Trump without Hicks at his side.
"I'm
just floored," one Trump ally said. "I don't think it's possible to
overstate the significance and just the importance of her role within
the White House. She's an invaluable team member and one of the
originals."
Multiple sources
insisted Wednesday that Hicks was in no way forced out of her position,
but Hicks' close relationship with Trump at times chafed at the strict
protocols Kelly has sought to impose. But Hick's access to Trump was
never really in question, despite Kelly's efforts to streamline the
access of other top officials, the people said.
But
Hicks and Kelly enjoyed an amiable working relationship and did not
feud in the way the retired Marine general has with other top officials,
people familiar with their dynamic said.
Kelly's
initial concern with Hicks was the uncertain nature of her role when he
took over in July. He pushed to have her assume the duties of
communications director to better define her position and place her
within the West Wing hierarchy.
Path ahead
At
just 29, Hicks is now expected to return to the private sector with the
heading of former White House communications director, a label of
prestige that can unlock top positions at blue chip companies,
six-figure TV deals and profitable, best-selling books.
Some
of those could be in the offing for Hicks, who has remained a mystery
to many Americans despite her proximity to power and influential role.
But Hicks will not exit the White House unstained, having drawn the scrutiny of special counsel Robert Mueller over her role in crafting the misleading statement about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.
Hicks
was one of the White House officials involved in crafting the statement
aboard Air Force One that claimed Trump Jr., the President's
son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort took
the meeting with the lawyer primarily to discuss US policy on Russian
adoptions -- rather than because Trump Jr. believed the lawyer would
provide incriminating information on Clinton from the Russian
government.
Hicks also came under
fire more recently over her involvement in crafting the White House's
initial defense of Rob Porter, the White House staff secretary who
resigned in disgrace after two of his ex-wives publicly accused him of
domestic abuse.
Hicks, who at the
time was dating Porter, did not recuse herself from the matter. Instead,
she urged other White House officials to put out a robust defense of Porter in the face of the allegations.
Hicks
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.
Hicks,
who first entered the White House as director of strategic
communications, rose to the position of communications director after
her predecessor Anthony Scaramucci flamed out in just 10 days, after
attacking fellow White House aides in a vulgarity-laden interview.
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.
The
Greenwich, Connecticut, native officially entered Trump's orbit in
2014, after the President's daughter Ivanka Trump poached Hicks from the
public affairs firm where Trump had been a client. Soon enough, Hicks
was working directly for the family patriarch at the Trump Organization
and he asked her in 2015 to join his campaign as his press secretary.
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