February 28, 2018

Hope Hicks Is Out as White House Communications Director

“There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump.”

Hope Hicks and Steve Bannon walk down the West Wing Colonnade following a bilateral meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on February 10, 2017 in Washington, DC.Chip Somodevilla/CNP via ZUMA Wire

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Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, announced to White House staff on Wednesday afternoon that she will resign.

“There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump,” she said in her statement. “I wish the president and his administration the very best as he continues to lead our country.”

The resignation comes the day after Hicks told the House Intelligence Committee that she had occasionally been asked to lie on behalf of the Trump administration. She characterized them as “white lies,” insisting they never concerned anything related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential election and its potential links to the Trump camp. 

Earlier this month, Hicks also found herself at the center of scandal involving White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who resigned amid allegations that he abused his two ex-wives. Hicks, who had been dating Porter at the time, reportedly helped draft a statement defending him once the allegations had been revealed.

The 29-year-old former model is the third White House communications director to serve in the Trump administration. She assumed the post in August 2017, when Anthony Scaramucci’s turbulent 10 days in office ended with his firing after The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza published an expletive-laden conversation he had with Scaramucci. The New York Times reports that Hicks had considered leaving for several months.

Hicks was one of of Trump’s longest-serving staffers, joining the Trump team as his press secretary during the campaign and serving first as the White House director of strategic communications when Trump took office last January. Hicks had no political experience prior to joining the Trump campaign.

In a statement, Trump praised Hicks for her work over the last three years. “Hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years,” Trump said in a statement. “I will miss having her by my side, but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, I totally understood.”

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