Just days after former Donald Trump adviser Hope Hicks tamped down rumors that she was itching to return to the White House, the president’s chief spokeswoman is touting her as a top recruit to help with the 2020 campaign.
‘I think a lot of people would love to see her involved,’ White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Politico on Thursday.
‘She is incredibly smart, talented, and she gets the president. It would be a win across the board for the president if she was involved in any capacity.’
Along with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, advance-man George Gigicos and social media guru Daniel Scavino, Hicks was among the quartet known as Trump’s ‘Original Four,’ his earliest campaign staffers who kept the shoestring operation moving forward in early 2015.
Before Hicks was a White House power broker with Oval Office walk-in privileges, she was Candidate Trump’s girl friday – as likely to steam his suit aboard his Boeing 757 as she was to arrange tarmac calls with senators.
Hope Hicks, pictured Wednesday in an Uber in New York City, would be welcome back to her triumphant role at President Trump’s side during the 2020 campaign, according to the White House
Hicks, now on the outside of Trump’s inner circle, isn’t looking to return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue any time soon – but admits she would ‘never say never’
The president, pictured Thursday at his Bedminster, New Kersey golf club during a roundtable discussion on prison reform, was initially at sea when ‘Hopie’ left the White House in March
Trump’s press secretary Sarah Sanders, pictured with Hicks before Hicks’ departure, said getting her old colleague back on the campaign trail ‘would be a win’ for the president
The March departure of ‘Hopie,’ as the president came to call his trusted communications director – when he wasn’t referring to her as ‘Hopester’ – left him wobbly for weeks.
‘Of course he wants her back,’ a Trump campaign official told DailyMail.comon Thursday. ‘Hope is one of the few people outside his family and his old boys’ club who really gets him.’
Returning in a re-election role could involve a formal job or an informal consultancy, the official said.
Hicks unintentionally fueled the fires of speculation last weekend when she joined Trump’s entourage for a campaign trip from New Jersey to Ohio.
But the 29-year-old said later that she is ‘happy’ with her life and it would be a ‘few years’ before she would consider working for the president again.
But Vanity Fair stoked the rumor mill on Tuesday with a mistaken report that the former Trump aide told reporters during an off-the-record conversation aboard Air Force One that she could take over as White House chief of staff under the right circumstances.
A person familiar with the conversation told DailyMail.com that Hicks only said she was open to coming back to the White House someday but has no plans in mind now.
Hicks, formerly the White House communications director, fueled the fires of speculation last weekend with a surprise appearance on Air Force One, traveling with the president to an Ohio rally
Trump is pictured with Hicks on her last day in the White House on March 29
Three sources confirmed that the idea of taking over for General John Kelly, who has alreaday told senior West Wing staff that Trump has asked him to stay until 2020, did not come up.
‘We are both happy with how things are right now, but never say never, maybe in a few years,’ Hicks reportedly said of a comeback.
Hicks has been unwilling to speak on the record about her plans, but she may be maneuvering toward a private-sector payday.
DailyMail.com photographed her exclusively last week as she lunched with investment banker and media guru Aryeh Bourkoff, who was once approached by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner about backing a ‘Trump TV’ network.
Vanity Fair also speculated that Hicks could hang a joint shingle with Josh Raffel, a former White House spokesman for Kushner his wife Ivanka Trump.
Aboard Air Force One, Hicks reportedly teased reporters by saying she had spent the past five months catching up on television programs she’d missed while working at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Hicks was said to have cut ties with with boyfriend Rob Porter, who was revealed by DailyMail.com earlier in the year to have allegedly beat two of his ex-wives, yet the two former White House staffers were spotted together in Central Park in July
Hicks stepped down in March after a grilling on Capitol Hill about her involvement with spinning Donald Trump Jr.’s 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower
Trump conferred with Hicks during an interview in the Oval Office in January
She wasn’t expected to be aboard the plane, coming along at the last minute after the president learned she was at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club catching up with Jared and Ivanka.
Hicks is believed to have stayed through the weekend at Bedminster before returning to her apartment in New York City.
Sources stressed that Hicks’ presence at the president’s golf club and her subsequent appearance at his campaign rally were not related to rumors of a return.
Trump himself has indicated that the former staffer who he is said to have considered a second daughter would be welcome on his team, though, if that is what she decides to do.
‘I love Hope. She’s great. I hope that — I’ve been hearing little things like that,’ he said of her possible return during a conversation on Air Force Once on June 29. ‘I think everybody misses it. You people exhaust a lot of people. They come in full of life and vim and vigor and then they’re exhausted.’
The president assessed,’I think when they leave for a while – many people would like to come back. Look, there is nothing more exciting than what we’re doing.’
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .