High-level departure
Hope Hicks seeks new opportunities
White House communications director Hope Hicks is resigning.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — White House communications director Hope Hicks, one of President Donald Trump’s most trusted and longestserving aides, abruptly announced her resignation Wednesday, leaving a void around a president who values loyalty and affirmation.
She will leave the West Wing in a few weeks, White House officials said.
The departure of Ms. Hicks, a political neophyte who worked as a onewoman communications shop during his campaign, came as a surprise to most in the White House — and cast a pall over the West Wing at a trying time for the president. It leaves Mr. Trump increasingly without support of the familiar aides who surrounded him during his campaign, and marks the latest in a string of high-level departures in the administration’s second year.
The news comes a day after Ms. Hicks was interviewed for nine hours by the House panel investigating Russia interference in the 2016 election and contact between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia. It also follows a rocky month during which she was under fire for mishandling the White House response to spousal abuse allegations against Mr. Trump’s staff secretary whom Ms. Hicks reportedly had been dating.
Officials said Ms. Hicks had decided in recent weeks to leave the administration and told Mr. Trump she wanted to explore opportunities outside of the government.
Ms. Hicks, 29, had a seemingly untouchable role in the West Wing, often viewed more as a surrogate daughter than a staffer. Perhaps most importantly, she served as Mr. Trump’s glamorous shield and validator, always ready to provide him with a smiling dose of positive reinforcement, and controlling reporters’ access. She was the fourth person to occupy the position since the president was sworn in, as the Trump White House has set modern records for staff turnover.
In a statement, Mr. Trump praised the “outstanding” Ms. Hicks for her work over the last three years, saying he “will miss having her by my side” and that she has done “great work for the last three years.” Ms. Hicks informed Mr. Trump of her decision Wednesday, a White House official said.
Ms. Hicks, who occupied the desk closest to the Oval Office in the West Wing, has been a central participant in or witness to nearly every milestone and controversy of the Trump campaign and White House. She began her White House tenure as director of strategic communications — a title that only partly captured her more expansive role as the president’s gatekeeper to the press.
Ms. Hicks acknowledged to a House intelligence panel Tuesday that she has occasionally told “white lies” for Mr. Trump. But she said she had not lied about anything relevant to the Russia investigation. She has also been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team about her role in crafting a statement about Donald Trump Jr.’s 2016 meeting with Russians, as Mr. Mueller’s expansive probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential misdeeds committed by those in the president’s orbit moves closer to the Oval Office.
Ms. Hicks’ departure leaves a vacuum in the White House communications team, and in the president’s collection of trusted aides. The announcement came a day after news broke of the impending departure of deputy communications director Josh Raffel, and just a few days after senior adviser Jared Kushner saw his security clearance downgraded — limiting his access to classified information.