Who Is Hope Hicks? Age & Biography Explained

The Short Answer

Hope Hicks is 37 years old. Born October 21, 1988, in Greenwich, Connecticut, she worked as a teen model before joining the Trump Organization in public relations. She became press secretary of the 2016 Trump campaign, then White House communications director from 2017 to 2018 - one of the youngest ever - before leaving for a Fox Corporation executive role and returning as counselor to the president from 2020 to 2021. She is known for keeping her personal life intensely private.

Early Life and Background

Hope Charlotte Hicks was born on October 21, 1988, in Greenwich, Connecticut, to Paul Hicks, a former NFL public relations executive, and Caye Hicks. She worked as a teen model - appearing in Greenwich magazine and Ralph Lauren campaigns - and played lacrosse at Southern Methodist University, where she also began modeling.

After college, she joined the New York PR firm Hiltzik Strategies, which had the Trump Organization as a client. Impressed, the Trumps hired her directly: she worked in Trump Organization communications, helped launch Ivanka Trump's fashion line, and when Donald Trump declared his 2016 candidacy, the 27-year-old became his campaign press secretary - the candidate's gatekeeper and one of his closest confidantes.

After the election, she entered the White House, becoming communications director in 2017 at 28. She resigned in 2018, spent two years as a Fox Corporation executive, then returned to the White House as counselor to the president in 2020, serving through the end of the term in January 2021. Throughout, she was known as one of Trump's most loyal and discreet aides - "the most powerful woman in Washington you've never heard speak," as profiles put it.

Hicks's pre-Trump resume was pure polish: Greenwich Academy, SMU (English, lacrosse), teen modeling for Ralph Lauren and Greenwich magazine - the Connecticut golden girl. Hiltzik Strategies, the powerhouse PR firm, hired her; the Trump account became her specialty - she modeled for Ivanka's fashion line, handled Trump Organization press, and impressed the family enough that when Trump declared in 2015, the 26-year-old became his press secretary by default: there was no one else he trusted. The campaign years - the plane, the rallies, the 4 a.m. tweetstorms she tried to manage - forged the closest aide relationship in modern politics: Trump called her "Hopey," and she was often the last person he listened to.

Career Highlights

Hope Hicks's career is a study in proximity to power. From Trump Organization PR to campaign press secretary to White House communications director - all by age 28 - she rose faster than almost anyone in modern political communications. Her power derived from trust: Trump reportedly called her "Hopey" and relied on her judgment about media and messaging.

Her 2018 departure - amid the Rob Porter scandal fallout - was treated as major Washington news; her Fox Corporation interlude gave her private-sector polish; and her 2020 return as counselor showed her enduring value to Trump. She later testified before congressional investigators about the Trump years, maintaining her reputation for discretion. At 37, she remains one of the most sought-after - and most silent - Republican communications figures.

The White House trajectory: communications director at 28 (August 2017) - among the youngest ever - navigating Charlottesville, tax reform, and the endless churn; resignation in March 2018 amid the Porter scandal's fallout; two years as Fox Corporation's chief communications officer, a $1.8-million-salary private-sector polish; then the 2020 return as counselor - senior adviser without portfolio, the president's comfort and counsel through COVID, the election, and January 6. Her congressional testimony - careful, loyal, limited - preserved her viability. Post-2021: private consulting, zero memoirs, zero tell-alls - the most discreet exit in Trumpworld, and the most intriguing.

Family and Children

Hope Hicks comes from a Connecticut family steeped in communications: her father, Paul Hicks III, was a public relations executive who worked with the NFL, and her mother, Caye Ann Hicks, has been described as a former legislative aide. She has an older sister, Mary Grace. The family raised Hope in Greenwich's polished, private world - a background that shaped her own discretion.

She has no children, and - true to form - has kept her romantic life almost entirely out of the press. Rare reports have linked her to former White House colleagues, but Hicks has never confirmed relationships publicly. Her family, like her, stays out of the spotlight: the Hickses are known in Greenwich, not in gossip columns.

Marriage and Relationships

Hope Hicks's love life is one of Washington's best-kept secrets. Over the years, she has been romantically linked in press reports to former White House staff secretary Rob Porter - a relationship that became public during the 2018 scandal over abuse allegations against Porter, which he denied - and later to other Trump-world figures. Hicks herself has never discussed her relationships publicly.

This privacy is deliberate and total: in an administration defined by leaks and tell-alls, Hicks never wrote a memoir, never gave a tell-all interview, and never confirmed a romance. At 37, her personal life remains hers alone - a remarkable feat for someone who spent years at the center of the world's most scrutinized workplace.

Family Roots and Extended Family

The Hicks family is Greenwich communications royalty: father Paul Hicks III was Ogilvy PR's executive VP and worked with the NFL; mother Caye Ann Hicks was a legislative aide; sister Mary Grace keeps the lowest profile of all. The family's discretion is generational - Paul never sought the spotlight despite decades around power. Hope's upbringing - private schools, lacrosse, modeling - was the Connecticut establishment's finishing school, and it shows: in an administration of screamers, she was the whisperer. The family's code - never complain, never explain, never confirm - is Hope's professional signature.

Where Are They Today?

As of October 2026, Hope Hicks is 37 (turning 38 on October 21) and maintains the low profile that has defined her since leaving the White House in 2021. She has not returned to government service, instead pursuing private-sector communications work while avoiding the media spotlight she once managed for others.

At 37, she remains a fascinating figure: the aide who had the president's ear at 27, who left at the peak, who came back, and who then walked away from it all without a book deal or a victory lap. The question "who is Hope Hicks" endures because, for all her proximity to history, she never told her side of it.

At 37 - 38 on October 21, 2026 - Hicks remains the great unsolved figure of the Trump era: the aide who knew everything and said nothing, who left twice and was welcomed back, who testified without betraying. She consults privately, avoids cameras, and has never monetized her story - no book, no podcast, no Substack. In a city that rewards indiscretion, her silence is either integrity or strategy; either way, it's total. The question "who is Hope Hicks" persists because she never answered it herself.

Why Fans Keep Asking

People ask "who is Hope Hicks" because she was simultaneously everywhere and nowhere during the Trump years - one of the most powerful staffers in the White House, yet almost never speaking on the record. Her youth (communications director at 28), her model past, and her total post-White House silence make her an enduring object of curiosity. At 37, she is the rare Washington figure whose mystery only deepens with time.

Hicks's age - 37 - is the marvel: communications director at 28, counselor at 31, retired from power at 32. People ask who she is because her resume reads like a novel's - teen model to presidential confidante in a decade - while the person remains a cipher. In the tell-all era, the one who didn't tell is the most fascinating of all.

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