Jason Miller says he won’t take the job in order to spend more time with family
Though Mr. Trump’s practice has been to disparage the press at rallies, in Mr. Miller he had elevated someone who largely took a less-confrontational, more traditional approach in dealings with reporters.
.. Mr. Miller said his duties as communications director will be handled by incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer. Hope Hicks, the campaign press secretary, will serve as director of strategic communications and Dan Scavino will serve as the director of social media.
GQ’s Profile of Hope Hicks Tells Us a Lot About Trump’s View of Women
Like most of the women who’ve passed through Trump’s entourage, Hicks is a former model; Cosmopolitan has called her “a dead ringer for supermodel Hilary Rhoda.” She’s “a hugger and a people pleaser,” as Nuzzi puts it, and seems pliable to her boss’s immoderate will
.. The profile contains multiple anecdotes about former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski verbally abusing Hicks until she cried in front of colleagues (and, at least once, in public on a New York street). There’s nothing shameful about getting emotional at work, but there is probably something wrong with a workplace where the fact that an employee cries after a superior tells her, “You’re fucking dead to me,” is taken as a sign that she’s unusually “sensitive.” This toxic dynamic didn’t stop Hicks from defending Lewandowski against charges that he’d physically battered a female Breitbart reporter, whom she derisively called “an attention seeker.”
.. It’s not hard to imagine how a woman who comes off as agreeable, vulnerable, and always flawlessly turned-out—a trifecta of traditional femininity—has succeeded in the retrograde world that is Trump’s sphere of influence. But there’s something uncomfortable about saying so aloud.
.. Hicks exemplifies not only what Trump expects of women, but also what he demands from all his American subjects: that we keep our mouths shut, and smile, and don’t appear to think too hard about anything he’s saying.
The Woman Who ‘Totally Understands’ Donald Trump
Ms. Hicks, who was working for his daughter Ivanka’s luxury lines and for the Trump real estate brand when the candidate called her to his office in early 2015 and declared that she was joining his campaign.
.. Hope Hicks had trained at Hiltzik Strategies, the powerful public relations firm that represents Hollywood clients and corporate executives
.. She is arguably the least credentialed press secretary in the modern history of presidential politics. But for journalists who cover the campaign, she is sometimes the Jekyll to Mr. Trump’s Hyde, emailing angry complaints from her media-bashing boss (“dishonest”) and often concluding with her own polite sign-off: “Best, Hope.”
.. “She believes in him, his leadership and abilities, and she’s thrown herself completely into this,” said Michael Feldman, a prominent Democratic strategist and family friend. “I don’t think that ties her personally to everything that’s been said.”
But some say they are alarmed that Ms. Hicks is promoting, and defending, a candidate who has been denounced as a demagogue, a racist, a misogynist and even a fascist.
.. Still, he added, “It would be unfair for someone to judge Hope or the family based on her job.”
.. Her grandfather led public relations for Texaco during the 1970s oil crisis.
.. Her father, Paul B. Hicks III, represented a major tobacco company in Connecticut and later was the top communications executive for the National Football League, where he dealt with scandals over player safety and the Patriots’ deflated footballs.
.. And she is unfailingly deferential to her employer, whom she refers to only as “Mr. Trump” or “sir.”
.. She’s got very good judgment. She will often give advice, and she’ll do it in a very low-key manner, so it doesn’t necessarily come in the form of advice. But it’s delivered very nicely.”
.. “I have to hope the Secret Service is keeping them all safe,” Caye Hicks said. “It’s a crazy atmosphere.”
.. Hope preferred lacrosse, leading Greenwich High School to a state championship and later playing at Southern Methodist University, where she majored in English.