BREAKING NEWS: Hope Hicks is officially OUT as president's closest female aide has her last day at the White House as he is impeached
Hope Hicks became the latest Donald Trump adviser to leave his side, it was revealed Wednesday, as administration officials flee following the president inciting a crowd to descend on the Capitol last week.
Hicks, who was one of Trump's most influential and trusted senior counselors, planned before the Capitol storming for her final day to be Tuesday, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN in a Wednesday report.
While news of Hicks’ departure broke, the House moved forward with voting on impeaching Trump for the second time. The House voted 232-197 on Wednesday evening with 10 Republican crossing the line to make Trump the only president ever impeached twice.
The president's confidant did not spend much time at the White House in the last few weeks, these sources revealed. They claim her influence waned recently when she pushed back against Trump's insistent claims of voter fraud and a 'rigged' election.
Hope Hicks is the latest within Donald Trump's administration to leave the White House just one week after Capitol storming
Hicks, 32, was one of Trump's closest aides and confidants since the start of his campaign in 2015. She told colleagues that she is not leaving in disgust, as her departure was planned for prior to inauguration ever since Trump lost reelection in November
WHO'S QUIT TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SINCE MAGA MOBBED CAPITOL HILL?
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf
Hope Hicks - who said it was not related to riots
Melania Trump's Chief of Staff Stephanie Grisham
White House Social Secretary Rickie Niceta
Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Intelligence and Security John Costello
Special Envoy for Northern Ireland and former OMB Director and White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney
The National Security Council's Senior Director for Europe and Russia Ryan Tully
Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews
Entire non-career staff of the Federal Aviation Administration
Hicks was also apparently urging Trump not to pursue legal challenges against the election process and results.
Unlike other officials, however, Hicks has told her colleagues that she is not leaving Trump in disgust or over anything related to the riot at the Capitol on Wednesday, January 6.
Reports emerged Friday that the 32-year-old aide planned to depart the White House before Joe Biden's inauguration ever since Trump did not win reelection in November.
Her end-date had been decided before the events last week.
This is the second time Hicks is leaving the Trump administration.
She was Trump's original campaign press secretary before becoming the youngest White House Communications Director when he took office.
Her personal life during her first stint had attracted unwanted attention after DailyMail.com reported in February 2018 that her boyfriend, then-Staff Secretary Rob Porter, had abused both of his ex-wives.
She left the job in March 2018, something it appeared neither she nor Trump wanted at the time.
In February 2018, Hicks gave nine hours of closed-door testimony to the House Intelligence Committee and the next day a report emerged revealing her plans to resign – even though the sources in those reports claim Hicks had been planning to resign for some time and was unrelated to the questioning the day before.
She officially resigned on March 29, 2018 and on March 9, 2020 – just shy of two years later – Hicks returned to the White House as an aide to Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and counselor to the president.
In the interim, Hicks worked as chief communications officer at Fox Corporation – Fox News' parent company.
With Hicks out, that leaves Trump's daughter Ivanka, and only a few other close aides, steering the White House during the president's last few days in office.
It's normal that some administration figures depart early during a change-over. This, however, is abnormal as Trump's incitement of the Capitol Hill siege on Wednesday hollowed out the corridors of power more quickly and in more condemnation of his actions.
Trump promptly lost two cabinet secretaries shortly after the Capitol was stormed by thousands of pro-Trump supporters last Wednesday – Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
The White House social secretary, Rickie Niceta, is gone. And first lady Melania Trump's Chief of Staff and former press secretary Stephanie Grisham was one of the first in the White House to submit her resignation.
Mick Mulvaney, a former White House chief of staff and OMB director who was the special envoy for Northern Ireland, resigned in protest of Trump's actions.