WASHINGTON: Hope Hicks, one of US President Donald Trump’s longest-serving and most trusted aides, is resigning from her job as White House communications director, a blow to the president, whose inner circle has been depleted by firings and clouded by scandal.
The White House announced Hicks, 29, was leaving a day after she spent nine hours in a closed hearing of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Hicks’ decision to leave was not related to her appearance before the panel, where lawmakers said she declined to answer questions about the administration. Trump called her “a truly great person” whom he would miss having at his side.
The Republican president has presided over an extraordinary amount of turnover among senior staff in his White House since entering office more than a year ago.
His first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, stepped down last summer, and his chief strategist, Steve Bannon was fired. Four people, including Hicks and former press secretary Sean Spicer, who also resigned, have held the communications director mantle.
Hicks did more than steer messaging. She was a constant presence in Trump’s orbit, sitting in on interviews with reporters and quietly steering press-related policy while maintaining a behind-the-scenes, low-but-glamorous-profile.
Hicks managed in many ways to stay above the fray of staff backbiting and palace intrigue that has characterised the Trump White House, but her proximity to the president has made her a central figure in some of its more dramatic moments.
Lawmakers said Hicks, Trump’s spokeswoman during the 2016 election campaign, did answer House panel questions on Tuesday about her time with the campaign, and the transition months between the November election and the January 2017 inauguration.
Hicks’ exact departure was unclear but is expected to be sometime over the next few weeks.
Hicks was caught up in a controversy surrounding former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, another close Trump aide, whom Hicks had been dating. She worked to defend him when charges of domestic abuse against his two former wives emerged. Porter was ultimately forced to resign. — Reuters
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