I have never understood how Hope Hicks landed at the White House, though I suspect it has something to do with her being a perfect amalgam of both Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump. And while she left Donald Trump’s side for a time, Hicks is now back at the White House and occupies some vague role in the scheduler’s office where, according to Politico, she has been a “key figure in encouraging Trump to be front and center at briefings and events during the coronavirus response, viewing him as the voice that could break through and capture the most attention.”
It sure sounds like she is doing an incredible job. Per Politico:
Along with Kushner, Miller and staff secretary Derek Lyons, Hicks urged the president to give an Oval Office address to the nation to convey the seriousness of the pandemic amid Americans’ rising anxiety and volatility in the stock market — a speech, on March 11, that critics panned because of Trump’s stilted delivery and a raft of inaccuracies that aides later had to clarify.
And here’s another nice tidbit on how Hicks is amazingly competent at whatever her job is:
While her focus has been on making sure the White House is “operating with one voice,” according to a former administration official, there have been moments of internal confusion over some of the event planning. For example, the press and communications teams were unaware of a Fox News town hall in late March that was pulled together at the last minute, and scrambled to support the broadcast in the Rose Garden, according to a person familiar with the matter.
As Tony Sayegh, her friend and aide to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, described Hicks, “Her instincts are impeccable and lead to good decisions.”
Truly!
In related news, Donald Trump and his campaign are beginning to think that killing people is perhaps not a very good reelection strategy.
From the Associated Press:
But the coronavirus has threatened to rewrite the Electoral College map, and Trump’s campaign has become concerned about losing support in several key swing states, particularly Florida and Wisconsin. Some advisers have all but written off Michigan, which Trump captured in 2016 by fewer than 11,000 votes. He is now locked in a feud with the state’s Democratic governor.
…
Trump campaign officials who requested anonymity to describe campaign strategy stressed that the election is still six months away, an eternity in politics. They noted polls can be be wrong or change, especially if the pandemic wanes or the economy rebounds. And they said the campaign believes that voters will credit Trump for the strong economy before the pandemic hit, even as they have expressed worry that he could be pushing to open things too quickly and that any resulting deaths will not be forgiven by voters in November.
- Donald Trump is also very upset that people think he’s a lazy buffoon. [New York Post]
- To show that he does in fact work very hard, Trump decided to delete some tweets.
- Nancy Pelosi and her eyebrows are now part of the #YangGang.
- And Pelosi certainly picked an interesting day to endorse Joe Biden. [CBS News]
- Mitch McConnell is a big fan of bread lines I guess! [Washington Post]
- The Republican Party’s plan to win relies on some good old-fashioned China-bashing. [Politico]
- Sounds like they got the memo, though to be fair, Tom Cotton didn’t need a Republican Party directive to tell him to be a big dick.
- And neither did Newt Gingrich!
- There were a bunch of Supreme Court rulings today, though not on DACA or Aimee Stephens’s Title VII case. [Washington Post/New York Times]