Longtime aide Hope Hicks has reportedly said she’s open to stepping in as President Donald Trump’s chief of staff if John Kelly decided to vacate the role.
Rumors of Hicks as a dark horse candidate for the high-level White House role circulated on Friday, one day after multiple reports claimed that Kelly was considering an imminent departure.
Trump himself hinted at Hick’s return to the White House when asked about it on Air Force One.
‘I love Hope.. I think everybody misses it, I think when they leave for a while,’ Trump told reporters. ‘Many people would like to come back. Look, there is nothing more exciting than what we’re doing.’
Trump is seen with Hicks on her last day in the White House on March 29. Now her name is being circulated as a possible replacement for chief of staff John Kelly
President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s happy with his chief of staff. It’s John Kelly (above), the president indicated, who may not be happy in the administration
Hicks’ name is being discussed inside the White House for the chief of staff role, according to two sources cited by Vanity Fair.
A source close to Hicks told the publication that she has told people she is open to the job if Trump asked, but is not pursuing it. Hicks declined to comment.
Meanwhile, supporters are lobbying for Hicks, a longtime Trump spokeswoman from both his private business and the campaign, to return to the administration after stepping down as White House Communications Director in March.
‘Unlike any other candidate he may be considering, she doesn’t need a learning curve and possesses the most important qualities that the president cares about: loyalty, independence, and a calming presence during chaos,’ conservative commentator Ryan Girdusky wrote for the Washington Examiner.
Hicks, 30, would be the first female White House chief of staff, and the youngest since James R. Jones was appointed to the role under Lyndon Johnson in 1968 at the age of 29.
Hicks, 30, (pictured in February) would be the first female White House chief of staff
She is certainly not viewed as the most likely candidate to replace Kelly, with top candidates reportedly including White House budget office chief Mick Mulvaney and Nick Ayers, who is Vice President Pence’s chief of staff.
But according to Girdusky, Hicks is seen as a loyalist to the President and familiar campaign face who could ‘help Trump connect with his base’.
On Friday, Trump said he was happy with his chief of staff’s performance, and it would be up Kelly whether he wanted to leave the administration.
Trump said the retired general is a ‘wonderful man’ with whom he’s ‘achieved a lot.’
‘Don’t forget, this is a big change for him. This has not been an easy change for him,’ Trump told journalists of Kelly during a flight to New Jersey on Air Force One.
How long Kelly would stay in his White House job, Trump said he does not know.
‘That I can’t tell you. But I can say we’ve had a very good relationship,’ Trump offered. ‘I like John a lot.’
Trump said the retired general is a ‘wonderful man’ with whom he’s ‘achieved a lot’
A report this week said that Kelly was looking to leave, possibly soon, and the president is considering his budget director Mick Mulvaney (left) and the VP’s chief of staff Nick Ayers (right) as his replacements
Kelly has been rumored to be on his way out for at least four months, since DailyMail.com reported on prior spousal abuse allegations against former White House Secretary Rob Porter, who was dating Hicks at the time.
The White House chief of staff has been less visible in recent months and was not on the president’s trip two weeks ago to Singapore.
He was part of a group that traveled with the president this week to Fargo and Milwaukee on a two-day, multi-state trip after the surprise announcement of retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
And on Tuesday, the president gave the retired Marine General a shout out while posthumously awarding a Medal of Honor.
‘I have a four-star in here, John Kelly. A special guy. Where’s John? Where is he? John?’ he said looking to acknowledge him. ‘Special man.’
After the previous set of rumors in early May that Kelly was on his way out, Trump brought his chief of staff up to reporters on the tarmac before a trip to Dallas and sang his praises.
Trump said the Kelly is doing a ‘fantastic job’ and that he did not believe reports that his chief of staff had called him an ‘idiot.’
A Wall Street Journal report on Thursday that Trump was mulling replacements again for the White House chief of staff.
‘I spoke to the president, who refuted this article,’ White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters responded. ‘He said it is absolutely not true and that it is fake news.’
The Journal reported that names being floated to succeed Kelly, a decorated U.S. Marine Corps general, included White House budget office chief Mick Mulvaney and Nick Ayers, who is Vice President Pence’s chief of staff.
Kelly, according to the paper, could leave the administration this summer, or as soon as this week.
Mulvaney said Friday that he has not spoken to the president about the chief of staff position.
‘I’ve heard those same rumors about three times now in the last 12 months,’ he said. ‘I’ll start dealing with that issue when the president actually raises it with me, as opposed to the media, and that hasn’t happened yet.’
‘As far as I know, General Kelly wants to stay and he is staying. He hasn’t said anything differently to me and I come here to work every day with the team,’ she said Friday on Fox News
White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway similarly said Friday on Fox, ‘I don’t understand these stories in that the media is sort of like ants on a sugar cube always go and focus on one thing. It seems to come up every month or two or three months.
‘But here you got responses directly from the president and from our Chief of Staff John Kelly yesterday that it is all news to them.’
Conway said Kelly is not on his way out – as far as she knows.
‘As far as I know, General Kelly wants to stay and he is staying. He hasn’t said anything differently to me and I come here to work every day with the team that the president has asked us all to work with and we do,’ Conway said.
For her part, Conway indicated that she wanted Kelly to remain in his position.
‘I find this place to be much more streamlined and much more sophisticated and running in a very good way a year-and-a-half into the presidency and we don’t run around wondering who’s leaving next, who’s going to be forced out, we get to work every day and there’s so much on our plate as you know that’s just not one of them. But I’ll leave that to them,’ she said.