Hope Hicks kept a "detailed diary" about her time in the White House: report https://t.co/5uohC4WJUg pic.twitter.com/gMB9ahzsAk
— The Hill (@thehill) March 2, 2018
It’s sourced from the Daily Mail, so keep that salt block handy — but, if true, it would be among the least surprising news revelations of the week. What true acolyte doesn’t assume their notes on the Great Man won’t be of vast historical (and *ka-ching* other) interest, someday?
Was Hicks really running the comms shop or was she the President's Emotional Support Staffer? I am not being facetious. It occurs to me that for someone running comms, I cannot recall hearing her speak, but I see a ton of stories about how important she was to him personally. https://t.co/qzb3Ydcz15
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) March 1, 2018
A lot of D.C. journos are doing a really rotten job of concealing the fact that Hope Hicks was a really good source.
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) March 1, 2018
Her job, as far as “we” can tell from outside the Oval Office, was being Daddy’s Dutiful Office Daughter. She stood one step behind the Big Man, nodding when he spoke, mirroring his expression when he looked her way, absorbing the random abuse and the unearned praise with equal imperturbability. When the old man stormed out of the meeting / slammed down the phone, she would linger behind and coo “What he *really* meant to say… “ and pretend she actually believed it. I have the suspicion that Ivanka “promoted” Hicks from her previous job specifically because she saw her as someone young/pliable/attractive enough to keep Daddy happy when Ivanka herself couldn’t be in the room — and not ‘hot’/pliable/desperate enough to start scheming for an upgrade to TrumpWife #4. Olivia Nuzzi, back in 2016:
…Hicks’s job —a sui generis role of outsize importance that she half invents on the fly—involves keeping the media at bay and operating as Trump’s chief gatekeeper. But she’s also summoned in critical moments of confusion to play instigator and score-settler. It was her job to facilitate Trump’s rebuke of the Pope after His Holiness questioned the Christianity of anybody who would build a border wall (kind of Trump’s thing). And it was she who helped malign a female reporter who’d been manhandled by Trump’s campaign manager, immediately claiming she was a lying attention hound. Hicks was also called on this spring to explain why Trump, over the course of three days, advocated four positions on abortion. She tried without success to quell the confusion, declaring, finally, that President Trump would end abortion, simple as that: “He will change the law through his judicial appointments and allow the states to protect the unborn.”…
Hicks’s big job in politics started—not that long ago—with a comparatively tiny gig in Trump Tower. In 2012, two years after she’d graduated from Southern Methodist, Hicks was working for a New York PR shop when she was dispatched to help one of the firm’s major clients: Ivanka Trump. At the time, Trump’s daughter was expanding her fashion line, and Hicks was enlisted to pitch in—and even do a bit of modeling, appearing online in a practical mint-colored dress, black clutch, and heels, all from the Ivanka Trump collection…
Trump reportedly berated Hope Hicks over her testimony to the House Intel Committee https://t.co/aOvuafB87X pic.twitter.com/dzGLnpQPK2
— Politics Insider (@Politicsinsider) March 1, 2018
Late Night Open Thread: Hope Floats (A Book Deal?)Post + Comments (28)