WHITE House communications director Hope Hicks announced her resignation Wednesday, leaving many West Wing staffers and others in U.S. President Donald Trump’s orbit stunned. Hicks, who joined Trump before he announced his presidential campaign in 2015 after working for his daughter’s fashion brand, was his longest-serving top aide. Though the 29-year-old had no prior political experience, she became Trump’s primary spokesperson and dealt with an avalanche of press questions and requests during the campaign. She earned the admiration of many reporters for her ability to handle the massive number of phone calls and emails that came her way and her willingness to set up a steady stream of interviews with Trump. On the campaign trail, Hicks became an almost constant presence by Trump’s side. Her closeness and loyalty to the president are what made her departure so surprising to colleagues and other members of Trump’s team. Hicks was well regarded within the West Wing, where she was known as a calming presence and one of those who best knew Trump’s moods. One Trump insider called her resignation “a shocker,” although it was known she had been unhappy since moving to Washington. “It was well known she never liked D.C., but I think most people thought she would be there at least until the end of the year,” the insider said. Hicks had been facing intense scrutiny in recent weeks, in part for her romantic relationship with former White House staff secretary Rob Porter. When domestic abuse accusations against Porter, 40, emerged, Hicks was involved in crafting supportive statements from the White House that proved controversial, and did not prevent Porter’s eventual resignation. Hicks has also been a focus of the Russia probe, particularly for her role in a meeting in which Trump and his team put together a false story to release to the press about a meeting in 2016 with Donald Trump Jr. and other campaign aides and a Kremlin-connected lawyer offering negative information about Hillary Clinton. On Tuesday, Hicks spent more than eight hours testifying before the House Intelligence Committee. It was reported that she admitted sometimes telling “white lies” on the president’s behalf. Despite the intense pressure on Hicks, the White House framed her departure as a routine career move. According to the White House, Hicks told the president she wanted to leave to explore other professional opportunities. The White House did not provide any information about Hicks’ future plans or her departure date, beyond saying that it will likely be in the coming weeks. “There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump. I wish the President and his administration the very best as he continues to lead our country,” Hicks said in a brief statement White House press shop sent out from her. The White House also released a statement from Trump praising Hicks. “Hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years. She is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person. I will miss having her by my side, but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, I totally understood. I am sure we will work together again in the future,” Trump said. 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. Hicks grew close to Ivanka and began dressing like the heiress, who seemed worthy of the emulation. Conveniently, as Hicks ingratiated herself to Ivanka, she won over The Donald as well — helped by the eager-to-please disposition she’d displayed since childhood. In Greenwich, Connecticut, as a kid, she was an athlete and a model who — after appearing in a Ralph Lauren ad — told a local magazine she intended to be an actress. By high school she was swimming, rowing, and captaining the lacrosse team. Kylie Burchell, Hicks’s lacrosse coach, recalled her as one of the only players to abide by a no-alcohol policy. “I think the girls were annoyed at her a little bit,” she said. “She was trying to be a leader. She was showing by example what to do.” She wasn’t always so earnest, however. In her senior yearbook, she mistakenly attributed the words of Eleanor Roosevelt — “The future belongs to those who believe in the power of their dreams” — to Jimmy Buffett. That Hicks, a pretty young lady from a tony town, would gravitate toward PR after college might have seemed obvious. But the sorority-girl caricature wasn’t what Hicks had in mind, or in her pedigree. In addition to her father, Paul, who directed PR at the NFL and now works for the D.C. power firm Glover Park Group, both of Hicks’s grandfathers worked in public relations. After meeting Matthew Hiltzik, a New York PR shark, in 2011, Hicks landed a job at his firm. It was there that she began working with Ivanka, putting her in the orbit of The Donald, who was quickly impressed. “I thought Hope was outstanding,” Trump said, recalling his decision to tell Hiltzik that he was poaching Hicks to work for him. In Trump’s telling, Hiltzik was powerless to deny him what he wanted. “I wouldn’t say he was thrilled,” Trump said. “But, you know, we give him a lot of business.” So Hicks joined the team at Trump Tower in October 2014, without any idea her new boss intended to become president. Or that she had just signed on to his campaign. Hicks’ mother, Caye, recounted her hiring this way: “Mr. Trump sat her down and said, ‘This is your new job.’ It was a shocker.” When Trump won, he appointed her “director of strategic communications,” a new title for a new kind of president. Hicks has been the gatekeeper for most — though not all — of his interviews. Hicks was Trump’s fourth White House communications director. During the president’s first year in office, Sean Spicer, Michael Dubke and Anthony Scaramucci all spent time in the job before leaving the White House. She is the second high-profile White House communications staffer to leave this week, following Josh Raffel, who was spokesperson for Ivanka and her husband, senior adviser Jared Kushner. According to the White House, Raffel’s exit was due to “family obligations.” Raffel and Hicks became close during their time in the White House. Their departures and the lifting of interim top-secret security clearances for Ivanka and Kushner leave chief of staff John Kelly in a strengthened position after weeks of rumors that he was close to being pushed out. As communications director, Hicks is often seen coming and going on Trump’s trips, but is never heard. Most Americans have never heard her voice. “SNL” tried to impersonate her last Saturday, but the bit fell flat because Hicks is so elusive and therefore difficult to mimic. Hicks’ good looks and gracious demeanor — a recent Town & Country profile called her “unfailingly polite and deferential” — make her a frequent subject of D.C. gossip. Days before publishing the allegations against Porter, the Daily Mail published paparazzi-like pictures of Hicks and Porter together, claiming they were “canoodling” in the back of a cab. True? Untrue? Hicks didn’t say. She does not tweet. She does not seek the TV limelight. This cloak of mystery has given rise to a kind of fan fiction on Twitter from those on the left. They imagine Keri Russell or Allison Williams someday playing Hicks in a movie about how she sabotaged Trump and saved the country. Hicks’s departure will leave Trump in need of yet another new communications director — his fifth. At the moment, multiple sources have suggested the likeliest choice is Mercedes Schlapp, a veteran political consultant who became director of strategic communications last September, and filled in for Hicks when she was away from her office.(SD-Agencies) | 