Hope Hicks, President Donald Trump’s third communications director, is one of his most loyal and hard-working members of his staff. She was one of the very first people to join his fledgling presidential campaign.
Miss Hicks, 28, who the president has sometimes called “Hopester,” is from Connecticut and graduated from Southern Methodist University.
She was briefly a model, appearing in a Ralph Lauren advert and on the cover of a book called The It Girl.
She once told a local magazine that if modeling and acting didn’t lead anywhere she “could really see myself in politics. Who knows?”
After moving to New York she worked for an advertising agency that handled the Ivanka Trump brand.
From there she was brought into the Trump Organization to work on Miss Trump’s fashion line.
She was then seconded to be Mr Trump’s spokeswoman at the very start of his campaign when he had only a handful of staff.
Miss Hicks was at the candidate’s side throughout the campaign, managing the demands of the ever-growing media contingent.
After Mr Trump’s victory she became director of strategic communications in the White House and occupied a desk just outside the Oval Office.
In the White House she has had the trust of the president and also managed to remain out of both the the public spotlight, and the vicious infighting among other presidential aides.
She has been described by some of those other White House insiders as “untouchable”.
Unlike some other senior White House aides she does not conduct television interviews and is keen to remain away from the camera. She has only tweeted three times.
In May she was mocked on social media after issuing a rare statement in response to a Washington Post article 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.”
After the departure of her high profile predecessor Anthony Scaramucci she was temporarily elevated to the Communications Director role, which has now be made permanent.
Miss Hicks already speaks to the president several times each day, informing him how stories are playing out in the media.
She will work closely with Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House Press Secretary on the White House’s media strategy.
Reaction on social media suggested her appointment was popular with many of Mr Trump’s supporters
