New Delhi: US President Donald Trump announced Friday morning that he and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Trump had earlier tweeted that they had gotten themselves tested after his trusted aide Hope Hicks contracted the infection.
He said, “Hope Hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for Covid 19. Terrible! The First Lady and I are waiting for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process!”
Hope Hicks, who has been working so hard without even taking a small break, has just tested positive for Covid 19. Terrible! The First Lady and I are waiting for our test results. In the meantime, we will begin our quarantine process!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
Hicks, who travelled with the Trump just a few days ago for the first presidential debate of 2020, held in Cleveland, Ohio, has been associated with the Trumps since 2012 and was chosen to be his press secretary in 2015, when he decided to run for president.
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Born in Greenwich, Connecticut, Hope Hicks became part of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign when she was only 26 years old, in 2015.
But her association with the Trumps had actually begun in 2012, when she joined public relations company Hiltzik Strategies and began working on accounts related to Donald Trump’s real estate, hospitality and fashion business ventures. She also worked with his daughter Ivanka on expanding her fashion label.
A graduate from the Southern Methodist University in Texas, where she played lacrosse, Hicks maintains a low profile, but is well versed with the intricacies of high-profile public relations and in administrative work. Her father, Paul B. Hicks, was the regional CEO of the Americas for Ogilvy Public Relations and is the executive vice president of communications at the NFL, and her grandfather was vice president and general manager of public relations for Texaco (an oil and gas company). Her maternal grandmother worked in the Department of Transportation, and maternal grandfather was in the Department of Agriculture during Johnson and Nixon’s reigns.
She recalled in an earlier interview, how Trump asked her to be his press secretary when he was contemplating running for president. “Mr. Trump looked at me and said, ‘I’m thinking about running for president, and you’re going to be my press secretary’.”
Hicks was the communications director for his 2016 presidential campaign and then went on to be the national press secretary for the presidential transition team.
In 2018, Hicks had resigned as White House communications director and joined the private sector, working as Chief Communications Officer at Fox, run by Lachlan Murdoch, son of media honcho Rupert Murdoch. But earlier this year, she returned to the White House as counselor to the president, and now reports to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
During her earlier stint in the White House, she was interviewed for nine hours by a panel investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. According to reports she told the panel that she occasionally told “white lies” for Donald Trump, but said she had not lied about anything pertaining to Russia.
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