Who is the new White House communications director?
Longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks has been offered a new communications director-like role in the latest staff shakeup to hit the Trump White House, and is currently considering the offer, CBS News has confirmed
CBS News' Chief White House correspondent Major Garrett reports that the job has been offered and Hicks, the communications adviser President Trump trusts most and speaks to most frequently, and is currently mulling the offer with an intention of redefining it, three sources confirm to CBS.
A White House official said in a statement to CBS News, "Hope Hicks will work with White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and all of the communications team and serve as the Interim White House Communications Director. We will make an announcement on a permanent communications director at the appropriate time."
The 28-year-old Hicks was an early Trump supporter and an original campaign holdover. She was brought on to the administration to serve as the director of strategic communications within the White House communications shop.
Hicks would fill the vacant spot left by Anthony Scaramucci who left the position after just 10 days on the job. Scaramucci left the role after an explosive phone conversation with a New Yorker reporter in which he disparaged several other White House staffers. The move came at the behest of chief of staff Gen. John Kelly, who asked Mr. Trump to remove Scaramucci from his role, according to a New York Times report. Kelly wanted "more structure, less Game of Thrones," a source close to the White House told CBS News.
Scaramucci had previously said that he would report directly to the president rather than the chief of staff.
Garret reports that Hicks currently typically checks in with the president multiple times each day to see how stories are playing and how to proceed on media matters.
Cabinet-level communications officials who used to coordinate with the first communications director, Mike Dubke, and also former Press Secretary Sean Spicer, have now been instructed to start coordinating with Hicks. She will deal now more frequently with cabinet agencies in addition to the daily interaction with Mr. Trump.
If accepted, Hicks would be a vital member of helping craft messaging for the embattled White House, working alongside the newest White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.