WASHINGTON – Hope Hicks was so close to President Trump that he took his advice last June to challenge protesters and march through Lafayette Square for a photo shoot she staged to project a “tough” image. The fire backfired when peaceful protesters had to be thrown out of the square with grenades and chemical spray, but Hicks remained a valuable adviser.
Now Mrs. Hicks is nowhere to be seen. She has been in the White House only sporadically since Trump lost the election, while continuing to receive her taxpayer-funded $ 183,000 salary.
And yet, she does not plan to add her name to the growing list of White House officials and cabinet secretaries who sent their resignations or issued public statements condemning Trump’s mob attack on the Capitol, in which two people were killed and three others died. medical emergencies. Hicks doesn’t want to make trouble for Trump, said a person familiar with his thinking, so she plans to simply be quiet. Her last planned day is next week, which she told people that it was already set before the Capitol attack.
Some people at Trumpworld have started referring to the group that is faithfully on Trump’s side as the “dead ends”, those advisers who are so closely associated with him that they have few options available but to stay with him.
Still working on the building, even though the west wing is being emptied, are Nick Luna, the man in the president’s body; Johnny McEntee, the director of the presidential staff office; and Dan Scavino, the president’s former golf caddy who became deputy chief of staff for communications. Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, is still working in the West Wing and plans to stay until the lights are turned off. But he was described by colleagues as a state of shock in recent days.
Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, is still there, but she did not go to the West Wing on Friday, telling her team that she needed to spend the day at home. Judd Deere, deputy press secretary for the White House, plans to stay until January 20.
Stephen Miller, the president’s top policy advisor who has been by his side since the 2016 campaign, still works for Trump. But even Mr. Miller has been around much less often because of his newborn, who became ill in the hospital. His first full day back at the West Wing office was on January 6th.
The Presidential Transition
His wife, Katie Miller, works as communications director for Vice President Mike Pence, whose close relationship with the president has fragmented in recent weeks. Mrs. Miller is on maternity leave.
A group of senior officials has struggled to figure out how to handle their roles: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin; Larry Kudlow, the national economic advisor; Robert C. O’Brien, the national security adviser; and Christopher Liddell, head of the White House transition team. But everyone decided to stay in their jobs until the inauguration to try to keep Trump under control and ensure that unfinished business is completed, despite his disappointment at Trump’s destructive behavior, said a person familiar with his plans.
“I intend to stay and try to do the right thing for the country,” said Liddell in an interview with a New Zealand publication. “It is really critical to keep my job for the next 12 days. This is an unbelievable and volatile situation. “
Pat A. Cipollone, the White House lawyer, considered resigning, but on Friday night he was still in office.
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. His presence was seen as an attempt to control damage. He and his wife, Ivanka Trump, have been absent from the White House in recent weeks. A cargo truck was spotted in front of your house in Washington’s exclusive Kalorama neighborhood on Thursday.
Those still working were angry at many who had left. After Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary, resigned on Wednesday, many Trump advisers said they saw this as an opportunistic move by someone who had long since left.
Former colleagues on Friday were particularly furious with Alyssa Farah, the former director of communications for the White House, who seemed eager to reinvent her role in the Trump administration by stating in an interview with Politico that she had resigned in December because “I I saw where this was leading. “
“They are feeding rock bottom that are showing their true colors,” said Jason Miller, the strategist for the Trump campaign. “Democrats are still going to hate them, the Trump base is going to hate them for being a rat jumping off the boat.”
Alan Rappeport contributed reports.