Hope Hicks has played a vital role in President Donald Trump‘s 2020 re-election efforts, but now she’s contracted COVID-19. As one of his closest senior advisors, the 31-year-old travelled with him to Ohio on Sept. 29 for his first presidential debate against Democratic presidential opponent Joe Biden,. She was also with him the following day as Trump flew to Duluth, MN for a campaign rally on Sept. 30. She began feeling symptoms of the coronavirus on the flight home, and tested positive for COVID-19 on the morning of Oct. 1. As a result, Trump and wife Melania have now gone into quarantine after they both subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 that evening.
Hope has worked with Trump since the beginning of his run for the presidency in 2015. She was his 2016 campaign spokeswoman and went on to become the White House communications director once he was in office. She abruptly quit in March 2018 to join Fox News, but subsequently returned to work for Trump in Feb. 2020 as a senior aide. We’ve got five things to know about Hope.
1. Her career started in public relations. After graduating from Southern Methodist University in 2010, Hope began working at the Zeno Group in New York City. She moved on to Hiltzik Strategies in 2012, where she helped represent Ivanka Trump’s fashion line, and some of her other ventures. This is how she developed a relationship with the Trump family. In August 2014, Hope started working for the Trump organization full-time, with her focus mostly on helping expand Ivanka’s fashion line.
2. She got involved in Trump’s politics in 2015. After seeing the work Hope did for his daughter, Donald wanted her to work on his presidential campaign. Even though she had never worked in politics before, she became Donald’s press secretary, and controlled which reporters were able to speak with the Republican candidate on a daily basis.
3. She took on a White House position once Trump was elected. Donald Trump was elected as president in November 2016. That December, Hope was given the position of White House director of strategic communications in his administration for a salary of $179,700. She served in that role for eight months before becoming the interim communications director, and later his permanent one, becoming the third person to hold the position since the time of Trump’s Jan. 20, 2017 inauguration. She abruptly resigned on Feb. 28 2018,a day after she testified for eight hours before the House Intelligence Committee. She told the members of congress that she was made to tell “white lies” by the president, but never in connection to the Russia investigation. Hope then went to work for Fox News, but returned as a senior Trump aide in 2020.
4. Her long-term relationship ended when her career took off. Hope was dating her boyfriend for six years before they broke up in the midst of her demanding work on Trump’s 2016 campaign. Once in the White House, she began dating WH Staff Secretary Rob Porter, until he resigned after two of his ex-wives publicly accused him of abuse in 2018. Hicks has also been linked to Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
5. She has done modeling and was an athlete. As a teenager, Hope modeled for Ralph Lauren. She was also the cover model for the books The It Girl and Hourglass Adventures. Hope was also co-captain of her high school lacrosse team and started the club lacrosse program at SMU.