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On The Campaign Trail With SMU Alum Hope Hicks ’10, Donald Trump’s Communications Director

Hope Hicks ’10 talks about her role as communications director for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in the June 2016 issue of Marie Claire magazine. Hicks earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences and played lacrosse while an SMU student.
MARIE CLAIRE

In Donald Trump’s inner circle on the campaign trail, there’s just one woman: Hope Hicks, 27, his communications director and the only woman who travels full-time with the Republican front-runner.

Hicks has played an integral role in Trump’s unprecedented rise in the 2016 election. As Trump tweets about the controversies du jour with abandon, delivers unscripted soliloquies at campaign stops, and is a near-constant presence on cable news, Hicks is behind the scenes, juggling the moving parts of the rapid news cycle.

In 2012, after a successful teen modeling career and graduating from Southern Methodist University, the Connecticut native got her first taste of the Trump life working on the hotel and golf divisions of his company for New York public relations firm Hiltzik Strategies. The Trump Organization brought her in-house as the director of communications in 2014, and the following year, she got the surprise of a lifetime when The Donald asked her to join his budding campaign. Here, in her first-ever interview in her current role, she shares what it’s like to work for the unconventional candidate.

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