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Who is Hope Hicks? How long has she known Donald Trump?
Hope Hicks, who has known Donald Trump for over a decade, testified in his trial surrounding an alleged hush-money payment made during his 2016 campaign.
The trial of Donald Trump in New York City continued this week, with Friday featuring a high-profile witness to take the stand, Hope Hicks. Many may remember Hick’s from Trump’s time in the White House, but many have forgotten the critical role she played as an advisor to the former president. As a member of Trump’s inner circle when the alleged hush money payment was made, she provided information about how members of the team responded to the allegations of the affair with adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels.
Hicks, 35, is a public relations executive and political adviser who was hired by the Trump Organization in 2014. An English graduate and former model, she initially worked with Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, on promoting her fashion label. Hicks then began to work directly for Donald Trump, who appointed her as press secretary of his presidential campaign in early 2015.
Her role during Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign
Hicks, 35, is a public relations executive and political adviser who was hired by the Trump Organization in 2014. An English graduate and former model, she initially worked with Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, on promoting her fashion label. Hicks then began to work directly for Donald Trump, who appointed her as press secretary of his presidential campaign in early 2015.
Before becoming the Trump campaign’s press secretary, Hicks had accrued no previous political experience, having worked solely in public relations, at the firm Hiltzik Strategies. Ivanka Trump was one of Hiltzik’s clients; this was the connection that led Hicks to work first for Ivanka, then for Donald. Indeed, Hicks was described by the New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum in 2016 as “arguably the least credentialed press secretary in the modern history of presidential politics”, with even Trump himself reportedly admitting that she had “as much experience as a coffee cup”. In a Times profile of Hicks, however, 2016 campaign manager Paul Manaforte said her rapid rise to prominence under the then-presidential hopeful came down to the rapport she had quickly built up with him. “Her most important role is her bond with the candidate,” Manaforte said. “She totally understands him.” Ivanka agreed: “My father makes people earn his trust. She’s earned his trust.”
Hicks joins the Trump administration
After Trump’s election win over Hillary Clinton in November 2016, Hicks was named as director of strategic communications in the new administration before becoming interim White House communications director in August 2017, in the wake of Anthony Scaramucci’s ill-fated, 10-day tenure in the role. She then took over the position permanently the following month.
Then 28, she became the youngest person ever to have been handed the role since it was created during Richard Nixon’s presidency in 1969.
In February 2018, Hicks resigned as White House communications director. The announcement of her departure came a day after she testified to the House Intelligence Committee that she had told “white lies” on Trump’s behalf, but insisted she had never done so about anything relating to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential links between this and the Trump campaign.
After working for 21st Century Fox as executive vice-president and chief communications officer over the next two years, Hicks then returned to the White House in February 2020 as a counselor to the president, reporting to Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.
In 2022, Hicks was interviewed by the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack as she was working in the White House in the months leading up to and during the attack.