"At the end of the day, I walked out of the courthouse with another journalist.... He didn’t buy Hicks’s tears."

"'Come on,' he said. 'She’s a crisis-communications professional.' She’d been terse at crucial moments for the prosecution, and generous with her praise of Trump. ('A very good multitasker and a very hard worker,' she called him.) Though she’d confirmed that Trump and his circle were worried that sex scandals would hurt him in the 2016 election, she’d also testified that Trump had asked his staff to hide newspapers from Melania when the Wall Street Journal published an article about McDougal. ('I don’t think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed by anything that was happening on the campaign,' she said. 'He wanted them to be proud of him.') It wasn’t clear if her testimony had helped either side. Maybe it had helped Hope Hicks."

Writes Eric Lach, in "What Is Hope Hicks Crying About? During Donald Trump’s criminal trial, the inscrutable former White House aide was equally inscrutable on the witness stand, despite breaking out into tears while testifying" (The New Yorker).

"Then, when Mr. Trump’s lawyer began his cross-examination, Ms. Hicks started to cry."

"Her tears were prompted by a series of seemingly innocuous questions about her time working alongside the Trump family.... Here was a fiercely loyal former aide, whose young life was utterly transformed by her proximity to Mr. Trump....  For his part, Mr. Trump seemed to appreciate the drama of what was unfolding before him. Although he has appeared to nod off several times throughout the trial, on Friday his eyes were, for awhile at least, glued on his one-time confidante...."

From "Hope Hicks Reluctantly Confronts the Man She ‘Totally Understands’ in Court/The dramatic appearance of Ms. Hicks, once one of Donald J. Trump’s closest aides, riveted the audience. During her testimony, she blinked back tears" (NYT).

"This made us all unemployable. Like untouchable. God I’m so f***ing mad."

"In one day [Trump] ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local Proud Boys chapter. And all of us that didn’t have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed. I’m so mad and upset. We all look like domestic terrorists now."

Texted Hope Hicks to Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff Julie Radford, quoted in "'This made us all unemployable': Trump White House aides respond to January 6 in angry text exchange" (CNN).

"Has Trump guaranteed himself the win by getting coronavirus and showing a more human side?"

Asks somebody on Quora. The top-rated answer comes Mark VandeWettering:

No, I don’t think so. If there is one thing I have to give Trump, his popularity has been remarkably consistent throughout his Presidency. Not actually good, mind you, but at least consistent. But I think that this bout with COVID-19 so close to the election isn’t going to actually boost him, and very well might hurt him. First of all, he’s sick because of his disdain for the consensus opinions for science and medicine.... Trump’s policies couldn’t even protect himself. He’s likely to recover... He apparently hasn’t learned much at all about showing a more human side. His followers will likely continue to follow, all the while tutting about how we should show empathy for him as he recovers in a luxurious, dedicated suite at Walter Reed. But I don’t think he’s going to gain a lot of followers.

Second-highest rated, from Wayne Spillett:

What price is enough for Hope Hicks to write the kind of book that has The Daily Mail effusing...

... "EXCLUSIVE: Hope Hicks' $10 million payday! The departing coms director is flooded with offers as publishers scramble for a book deal to spill the secrets of Trump's inner sanctum and her affair with wife abuser Rob Porter"?

She hasn't accepted $10 million, nor should she.

High-powered New York literary agent Eric Myers told DailyMail.com that Hicks could easily get a $10 million advance, 'If she really did promise to throw the office doors wide open and tell all. 'However, that may not be likely as she is a longtime close friend and defender of Trump, and may not be inclined to do that. Plus, there would undoubtedly be matters of legality and national security to be weighed. If a book were to happen, it would undoubtedly be the subject of an auction among the major publishers, which would be a key factor in driving up the amount of the advance.'

Another prestigious literary agent who has represented Pulitzer Prize-winning political journalists, among other high-profile, celebrity clients – and receives a fifteen percent commission on every book sold -- told DailyMail.com: 'Hope Hicks was a star Washington insider. 'I always saw a book coming from her when the time was right. Now the time's right. Overnight she's become a potential goldmine A $10 million advance is not out of the question for her to tell the true, untold, inside story about life in Donald Trump's White House and inner circle. She probably knows more than the first lady – about that, I wouldn't be surprised. And I think everyone will be interested in the true story of her relationship with Trump. Is he a father figure to her – or something more? There's just so much speculation about their relationship. Look, here's a gorgeous young woman with no political experience who suddenly becomes one of the most influential woman in the White House who has the president's ear 24/7."

Look, Bill Clinton got $15 million in 2004 to write a book about himself that no one had any reason to think would contain a damned thing that was revealing or that cut against the interests of his party and his close associates. Hillary Clinton got $14 million in 2014 to write "Hard Choices," and it wasn't a hard choice to pocket $14 million to crank out dull PR that no one wanted to read. And Barack and Michelle Obama were handed $60 million for what? We haven't seen it yet, but you can bet 60 thousand dollars that they're not putting themselves into the hands of opponents of any of their friends or suffering struggles of conscience deciding how much to betray the confidences of anyone they care about.

Maybe Hope Hicks — who is 29 years old — is so tired of it all that she's ready to retire into a life of idle rich person, so she's tempted to throw away her ongoing reputation by selling what would count as the "the true, untold, inside story about life in Donald Trump's White House and inner circle." But even the Obama's $60 million number is not enough. She's lived alongside a billionaire, by whose standard $60 million doesn't even make you rich. I'd say even $100 million is not enough to flip Hope Hicks to betray her relationship with Donald Trump.

Now, if she's seen "chaos" inside the White House and genuinely thinks there's something horrible going on and needs to warn us about it, then — if it's bad enough — she should should betray the relationship, and she should do it without taking any money at all. It can't be, first, let me have that big publisher's auction, nail down the money that will set me up for life, and then I'll tell you a set of Michael Wolffish tales.

I say: Hope, you are 29. Don't sell out. At any price.

ADDED: I know: I got carried away. There is a middle position. Make a $10 million deal for a book that is pure vanity: My lovely times, with that wonderful man, Donald Trump.

"Another unqualified Trumper who had no business in the White House. She had zero experience in government; but she had the 'right look' for Trump's reality show."

"She is following her boyfriend Rob Porter out the door and probably considering what her lawyer bills will be now that she has admitted to telling "white" lies for Donnie Trump. She is complicit in all of the sleaze and crimes of this administration. A true Trumper; she joins a whole line of luminaries who have helped to degrade our democracy and our standing in the world. Glad to see the girl (and I do mean 'girl') go."

That's the top-rated comment (by Trishspirit33 Los Angeles) on Maggie Haberman's "Hope Hicks to Leave Post as White House Communications Director" in the NYT.

I'm not surprised to see that kind of sexism, but I'm tempted to affect surprise and call this an amazing display of sexism: When a woman gets a great job, she got it because of her looks. When a woman makes a career decision, she's doing it for a man. And just go ahead and call her a "girl" and underscore that you mean to disparage her in a specifically gendered manner.

As for the "white lies" — who in politics doesn't tell white lies? If they say they don't, they're telling a white lie. I'd give Hicks honesty points for admitting that she tells white lies, though not too many points, because it's so obvious that white lies must be told that it's like admitting you're not perfect.

Does any politician claim never to have lied?

I know some have spoken in the future tense. Jimmy Carter famously said: "I will never lie to you."

And Donald Trump released his inner Jimmy in 2016: "In this journey, I will never lie to you. I will never tell you something I do not believe."

Did they ever say — in the past tense — they never lied? Will anyone sit them down at a hearing and confront them with the question have you ever lied? No. But if they did, they might think — don't say this out loud! — it depends on what the meaning of "lie" is. And then they might decide they could say no. Or they could be decently honest and admit to telling "white lies."

Hope is gone!

"The White House announced she was leaving a day after Hicks, 29, spent nine hours in a closed hearing of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election," Reuters reports.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Hicks’ decision to leave was not related to her appearance before the panel. Lawmakers said Hicks, Trump’s spokeswoman during the election campaign, declined to answer questions about the administration but she did answer every question asked about her time with the campaign, and the transition months between the November election and the January 2017 inauguration.

Helping Hope Hicks.

"Trump Hires Senior Adviser for Communications/Jason Miller served as the senior communications adviser for Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign."

... For months, Trump campaign aides have said that they wanted to beef up the communications team to assist press secretary Hope Hicks, who has handled the bulk of the work on her own. But some campaign insiders resisted such a move, preferring to stick with the unconventional political strategy -- of utilizing a small, tight-knit campaign team -- that propelled Trump to win the nomination....

Getting to normal. That's the goal now. If people — the people who didn't fall for the phase 1 wooing — come to believe that Trump is normal, he's in. Right?

ADDED: Writing this post made me want to go see if Scott Adams has finally gotten around to saying something new, and I see he has and also that it seems apt enough to tag onto this post:

[T]he folks on [Clinton's] side have been viciously effective at branding Trump a crazy racist.

Nothing else in this election matters....

The facts don’t matter. Facts never matter. What matters is that the “crazy racist” label picked up enough confirmation bias to stick like tar. The Clinton team won the month of June. And unless something changes, Clinton will saunter to an easy victory in November....

AND: Adams tries to figure out what Trump could say to undo the "crazy racist" branding. He pictures Trump saying he loves everyone and believes in the "melting pot."

I think what Trump is going to try to do — which he started yesterday — is argue that the true meaning of "racist" is what Democrats do, which is to openly talk about everyone — and to frame political appeals — in racial terms. What Trump said yesterday — about Elizabeth Warren — was "She made up her heritage which I think is racist. I think she's a racist actually, because what she did was very racist." The idea is: It's racist to exploit race, and they do that all the time. Democrats can be relied on to cite race continually, and Trump will have a lot of "there you go again" opportunities: They're trying to divide us by race to get political power for themselves. I will never do that.

ALSO: Trump might be able to get people to identify with him. He could say: I've been called a racist so unfairly, and it's what they do to you too if you don't stay in line. They've got people so afraid of being called a racist — completely unfairly — that half of the members of my own party are afraid to support me, they're so afraid they might get called a racist. This fear — this race-based fear, because of their racist name-calling — is terrible for America. 

"Hillary Clinton employs a half-dozen battle-hardened media handlers who field hundreds of daily requests. Mr. Trump has Ms. Hicks..."

"... who was working for his daughter Ivanka’s luxury lines and for the Trump real estate brand when the candidate called her to his office in early 2015 and declared that she was joining his campaign," writes Michael M. Grynbaum in a NYT article that fell off the front page quite quickly.

“Mr. Trump sat her down and said, ‘This is your new job,’” said her mother, Caye Cavender Hicks. “It was a shocker.”...

Suddenly, she found herself a near-constant presence by Mr. Trump’s side, flying in his jet, living rent-free in a Trump-owned apartment and attending to his mercurial moods....

Unlike her Clinton counterparts, who take pains to shape their candidate’s image, Ms. Hicks is not active on Twitter and does not show up on cable talk shows. Contacted for this article, she declined to be interviewed, insisting that she did not want to draw attention away from her candidate....

“I’m lucky to have her,” Mr. Trump said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “She’s got very good judgment. She will often give advice, and she’ll do it in a very low-key manner, so it doesn’t necessarily come in the form of advice. But it’s delivered very nicely.”

Did he have qualms about hiring a campaign spokeswoman with no political background? “Well, I have a lot of political experience, so I wasn’t really concerned about it,” Mr. Trump said.

Hope Hicks is 27.