WASHINGTON – Hope Hicks was so close to President Trump that in June last year he listened to her advice to defy protesters and pull across Lafayette Square for a photo she offered to portray an image of ‘toughness’ . The plan fell back when the peaceful protesters had to flush the square with the flash grenades and chemical spray, but me. Hicks was a valued advisor.
Now Mrs. Hicks is nowhere to be found. She has only been sporadically in the White House since Mr. Trump lost the election while continuing to collect her $ 183,000 taxpayer-funded salary.
And yet she has no plans to add her name to the growing list of White House officials and cabinet secretaries submitting their resignations or issuing public statements about the Trump-incited mob attack on the Capitol, in which two people were killed and three other deaths are due to medical emergencies. Me. Hicks does not want problems for Mr. Trump does not create, said a person familiar with her thinking, and therefore she plans to remain silent. Her planned last day is next week, which she said said people were already set before the Capitol storm.
Some people in Trumpworld have started referring to the group that is loyal to Mr. Trump likes the “dead ends”, the advisers so closely attached to him that they have few options available except to stay on his side.
Nick Luna, the president’s body, is still working in the building, even though the West Wing has been cleared; Johnny McEntee, the director of the presidential staff office; and Dan Scavino, former president of the president, became deputy head of communications. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is still working in the West Wing and plans to stay until the lights are off. But he has been described by colleagues over the past few days as a shock.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany is also still there, but she did not come to the West Wing on Friday and tell her staff that she had to spend the day at home. Judd Deere, a White House deputy press secretary, plans to stay until Jan. 20.
Stephen Miller, the president’s leading policy adviser who has been by his side since the 2016 campaign, is still working for Mr. Trump. But even Mr. Miller occurs much less frequently because of his newborn who was sick in the hospital. His first full-time day in his West Wing office was January 6th.
The presidential transition
His wife, Katie Miller, works as communications director for Vice President Mike Pence, whose own close relationship with the president has broken down in recent weeks. Me. Miller is on maternity leave.
A group of more senior officials have struggled over how to handle their roles: Steven Mnuchin, secretary of the treasury; Larry Kudlow, the national economic adviser; Robert C. O’Brien, National Security Adviser; and Christopher Liddell, head of the White House transition team. But everyone decided to stay in their job until the inauguration of Mr. Trying to keep Trump in check and ensure that unfinished business is completed, despite their disappointment in the destructive behavior of Mr. Trump, said a person familiar with their plans.
“I intend to stay and do the right thing for the country,” he said. Liddell said in an interview with a New Zealand publication. ‘It’s actually critical that I keep my job for the next 12 days. This is an incredible, volatile situation. ”
White House councilor Pat A. Cipollone considered resigning but was still at work Friday night.
Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, was spotted in the West Wing on Friday after flying back from the Middle East. Its presence is seen as an attempt at damage control. Both he and his wife, Ivanka Trump, have been absent from the White House for the past few weeks. A truck with rubbish was noticed in front of their house in the exclusive neighborhood Kalorama of Washington Thursday.
Those still working were angry at many who left. After Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary, resigned Wednesday, many Trump advisers said they saw it as an opportunistic move by someone who had long since checked out.
Former colleagues were furious on Friday about Alyssa Farah, the former White House communications director, who seemed eager to rediscover her role in the Trump administration by claiming in an interview with Politico that she resigned in December because ‘ I saw where it was going. ”
“They are the best feeders who show their true colors,” said Jason Miller, the Trump campaign strategist. “The Democrats are still going to hate them, the Trump base is going to hate them because they are a rat jumping the ship.”
Alan Rappeport contribution made.