Yes, White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, 29, is a "former model," appearing in Ralph Lauren ads and modeling clothes for Ivanka Trump's brand, says Virginia Heffernan at the Los Angeles Times, but modeling is not "Hicks' chief qualification for her job with Trump. She's a publicist to the bone." Trained in a "fierce Manhattan PR shop," Hicks comes by her profession honestly, Heffernan says — her grandfather ran public relations and advertising at Texaco, and her father, Paul Hicks III, oversaw publicity for the NFL before landing at a Democratic communications firm, the Glover Park Group.
Both father and grandfather worked to smooth out unsavory stories for their clients — while her grandfather, Paul Hicks Jr., was at Texaco, it "went bankrupt — and in 1990 entered an unusual joint venture with the Soviet oil industry," Heffernan recounts. And Hope Hicks' mentor prepared her well for working with President Trump, she adds:
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