Hope Hicks, a one-time close aide and communications director to President Donald Trump, will return to the White House next month after two years away to work closely with key advisors, administration officials said on Thursday.
Hicks, who previously served as Trump’s campaign press secretary, will be working closely with the president’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner and White House Political Affairs Director Brian Jack, a White House official said without disclosing the specific issues she would focus on.
She returns as Trump steps up his campaign for re-election in November. Hicks was a spokesperson for Trump’s 2016 campaign and was one of the first hires for his presidential bid.
Hicks, one of Trump’s most trusted aides, served as White House communications director until resigning in Feb. 2018 when she was appointed communications chief at Fox.
In a statement, Fox praised Hicks for being instrumental in setting up a program to help veterans, youth and underserved communities and described her as “a key executive team member” at the inception of Fox Corporation, the company spun off from Twenty-First Century Fox’s merger with Walt Disney Co.
Hicks was caught up in a controversy surrounding former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, another close Trump aide, whom Hicks had been dating. She worked to defend him when charges of domestic abuse against his two former wives emerged. Porter was ultimately forced to resign.
Last June, Hicks testified in a hearing on former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, but refused to answer questions about her 14-month White House tenure.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Alexandra Alper; Writing by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell)