Donald Trump’s ex-aide, who just testified in the Donald Trump “hush money” case, had consulted for the beleaguered Chinese ultra-fast fashion brand

“The Great Hope Hicks”, according to Donald Trump. Illustration: Just So

Considered one of Donald Trump’s most trusted aides, Hope Hicks is now in the news as she takes to the stand to testify against her former boss in what has been dubbed the “hush money” case. Dressed in a sombre black pantsuit and light blue shirt—as if it was a regular day in the White House—for the lower Manhattan courthouse last Friday, the brown-haired beauty was reported to have offered a compelling and, according to some observers, “powerful” testimony, beginning with being “extremely nervous”, as she told the courtroom, to, at a point, allowing the tears to flow. Ms Hopes recalled what happened in the White House after the news of the infamous “Hollywood Access” tape broke. The 36-year-old (who was only 26 when she accepted Mr Trump’s offer to join his team), according to news reports, barely looked at the man she once spent considerable amount of time with, as well as denying that he had affairs with women, in particular, two.

One of the longest-serving of the former president’s revolving door of chiefs, secretaries and aides, and once “a one-woman press team—as Forbes described her in 2017—during Mr Trump earlier campaigning, she always presented a calm and collected front as she moved within Mr Trump’s White House inner circle. She was noted for her “poise amid a chaotic campaign” in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, as The New York Times reported. But now, in the presence of her former boss, whom she said she “totally understands”, she was seemingly apprehensive and worried. It is not clear if being in the presence of the presumptive Republican nominee made her nervous. Or, if it was the prospect that the former might berate and belittle her if she did not say anything he liked.

It is not clear if being in the presence of the presumptive Republican nominee made her nervous. Or, if it was the prospect that the former might berate and belittle her if she did not say anything he liked

Although she held an important role in the Trump administration (and before that), she was not as visible as, say, Kellyann Conway, who had the tendency to make herself extremely comfortable in the White House. Still, Ms Hicks is considered a beauty and carried herself in a manner that was probably pleasing to Mr Trump’s eyes. The former president, as we know, loves surrounding himself with models or ex-models. His wife Melania was a model (since five), his daughter Ivanka Trump was a model (she did runway shows for generally unknown brands), and Ms Hicks was a model, even appearing in Ralph Lauren ads when she was a teen. That she was chosen to appear on the advertisements of the creator of Polo shirts is unsurprising: she had—and still has—the look of the wholesome American beauty MAGA manics love, so much so that she even posed for Bruce Weber (of the Abercrombie & Fitch ad campaign fame) in a shoot for the conservative US shoe brand Naruralizer.

Hope Hicks resigned from her White House position in 2018, after giving a reported nine-hour testimony (including admitting that she told “white lies” for the then president) to the House Intelligence Committee investigating suspected Russian meddling in the 2016 US election that Mr Trump eventually won. She then joined Fox News in Los Angeles as their PR head—as if to prolong the high of her White House tenure or the joy of the giddy circus that was Trumpworld. She stayed for two years and then left to return to rejoin her former boss as counselor to the president, reporting to the latter’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Going back to Washington seemed to suggest that she was not able to manage a professional life without the company of Mr Trump or his family. A year later, she resigned and left the White House, again.

Hope Hicks with her unmistakable brown cascading blow-out. Photo: Getty Images

Apparently, Ms Hopes now runs her own communication consulting firm, which has been described as “small”. She divides her time between New York and Washington, DC,—both cities are where her clients are mostly from or based in. According to a report by Politico, one of them is the Chinese-owned ultra-fast fashion label Shein, with whom she offered “strategic communications”. Online chatter suggested that she had done it for about a year, but there is no news on the current state of her work with them, if any. Curiosity is burning on why Ms Hicks would accept Shein as a client, given the troubles and reputational strain the fashion company is facing, especially in the US, where they have been under stress to prove that they are not buying from factories in Xinjiang (accused of human rights abuses), as alleged. It is not known what Shein consults her on or if she was in anyway involved with the brand’s influencer scandal in 2023, when American influencers were invited to Shein’s China production facilities.

Ms Hicks came into the Trumps’ orbit when in 2012, while working at Hiltzik Strategies, a New York PR firm that has a client list comprising Hollywood stars and corporate big-wigs, she was assigned Ivanka Trump as a client to promote the future first daughter’s ill-fated fashion line Ivanka Trump Collection. Both women apparently hit it off and Ms Hicks soon also took on projects for Trump Hotels. That she would become her client’s “friend and colleague”, as Ms Trump enthusiastically declared, is hardly surprising. Both women share similar taste in clothes; they dress—and fard—alike (Ms Hicks even appeared as a model for Ms Trump’s now-defunct brand): MAGA magnificence that is marketable to Trumpers. Or, neat and prim clothing that do not say much other than that you’re rich or powerful. And, sometimes, a Trump lackey.