Ralph Lauren model who’s new face at White House
DONALD Trump has appointed a 28-year-old former Ralph Lauren model who once graced the cover of a book called The It Girl as his permanent director of communications.
Hope Hicks, a long-time aide to President Trump, will become the third person to hold the high-profile position since he entered the White House eight months ago.
She replaces Anthony Scaramucci, a fast-talking ex-Wall Street banker who lasted only 11 days in the job before being ousted in July after making a foulmouthed attack on senior colleagues to a journalist.
The rather more refined Miss Hicks, who immediately took over from Mr Scaramucci as interim director, was press secretary as Mr Trump ran for office and became White House director of strategic communications after he was elected.
The President has nicknamed her the ‘Hopester’, and she reportedly has a thank you note from him above her desk which reads ‘Hopie – You’re the greatest!’ She is one of the highest paid women in the Trump White House, earning a salary of £135,000 before yesterday’s announcement.
Mr Trump has made no secret of his admiration for attractive, young women, prompting sceptics to assume that Miss Hicks was a lightweight who would no longer be allowed to handle his press affairs once he won power.
However, she has stayed the course with a President who admires her intense loyalty – a quality Mr Trump most prizes – and appetite for hard work.
In May she issued a rare statement to defend him in response to a story that suggested Mr Trump belittles his staff in private.
Miss Hicks said: ‘President Trump has a magnetic personality and exudes positive energy, which is infectious to those around him. He is brilliant with a great sense of humour, and an amazing ability to make people feel special and aspire to be more than even they thought possible.’
Originally from Connecticut, Miss Hicks is a former champion lacrosse player who graduated from Southern Methodist University with an English degree.
Her modelling career started when she was 11 and included appearing in adverts for Ralph Lauren and Ford, and on the cover of The It Girl.
She got to know the Trump family in 2012 while working for a PR company before joining the Trump Organisation and later being seconded to his presidential campaign.
The President’s daughter Ivanka has described Miss Hicks as ‘brilliant, kind and wickedly funny’, while she has spoken of the Trumps as a ‘wonderful family’.
Although the always impeccably turned out Miss Hicks – whose preferred outfit is a Burberry mac and heels – says that she prefers to stay out of the spotlight, she is unlikely to manage this in her new role.
She concedes she knew very little about politics prior to the Trump campaign. However, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort said her greatest asset is that she ‘totally understands’ the President.
Some White House colleagues say her prominent position is ‘untouchable’.