Mercedes Schlapp

Mercedes Schlapp
2nd White House Director of Strategic Communications
Assumed office
September 12, 2017
President Donald Trump
Preceded by Hope Hicks
Personal details
Born Mercedes Viana
(1972-12-15) December 15, 1972
Miami, Florida, U.S.
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Matt Schlapp
Education Florida International
University (BA)
George Washington
University (MPA)

Mercedes Schlapp (née Viana) (born December 15, 1972)[1] is an American lobbyist, and columnist. Since September 2017, she has served as White House Director of Strategic Communications.

Personal life

Schlapp is a first-generation Cuban-American raised in Florida, whose father was jailed for six years by the government of Cuba. She is married to Matt Schlapp, the chair of the American Conservative Union.[2] The Schlapps have five daughters and attend a Catholic church.[3]

Career

Media

Schlapp worked on local and national political campaigns, as well as the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns for George W. Bush, and was Director of Specialty Media in his administration.[4] Later she was a Fox News contributor and a columnist for several publications including U.S. News & World Report and The Washington Times.[5][6][7][8]

Lobbyist

Together with her husband Schlapp founded Cove Strategies, a lobbying firm based in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2009.[9] Since Trump entered the White House, the income of the firm surged (from $600,000 in 2015 to more than a $1 million in 2017).[9] Koch Industries was the firm's first client.[9]

NRA

She was a board member of the National Rifle Association before joining the White House.[10] She was an aid consultant at the NRA, earning $60,000 from the NRA for an average of 49 hours of work per week in 2015, and $45,000 in 2016.[9]

Trump administration

On September 12, 2017, President Donald Trump's administration announced that Schlapp would serve as Director of Strategic Communications.[11] Prior to joining the Trump administration, Schlapp made numerous statements that were strongly critical of Trump.[12]

Schlapp attracted attention when she and her husband left the White House Correspondents Dinner early in April 2018, saying that she was disgusted by comedian Michelle Wolf’s jokes aimed at Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.[9][13] In a limousine en route to an exclusive NBC/MSNBC afterparty, she tweeted that Wolf's comedy routine is "why America hates the out of touch leftist media elite".[9] In May 2018, Schlapp defended White House aide Kelly Sadler after she joked that John McCain's opposition to CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel was irrelevant because "he’s dying anyway".[14][15]

Political positions

Schlapp has stated an opposition to same-sex marriage, calling President Barack Obama’s decision to support it a "political ploy".[16][17]

References

  1. ↑ (subscription required)https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KLJG-KV7
  2. ↑ "The Hon. Matt Schlapp". American Conservative Union. Retrieved 2016-06-11.
  3. ↑ The ACU (2015-02-27), CPAC 2015 - Matt Schlapp, Chairman, ACU, Former White House Political Director, retrieved 2016-06-11
  4. ↑ "Mercedes (Mercy) Viana Schlapp", ffrwculpeper.com/Founding Fathers Republican Women.
  5. ↑ "Mercedes Schlapp". www.usnews.com. Retrieved 2016-06-11.
  6. ↑ "Mercedes Schlapp: CNN Debate Was 'Montessori School' 'Unstructured'". NewsBusters. Retrieved 2016-06-11.
  7. ↑ "Mercy Schlapp stories". Fox News. Retrieved 2016-06-11.
  8. ↑ "Mercedes Schlapp | Stories - Washington Times". www.washingtontimes.com. The Washington Times. Retrieved 2016-06-11.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Meet the Schlapps, Washington's Trump-Era 'It Couple'". The New York Times. 2018-04-30. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  10. ↑ Woellert, Lorraine (February 28, 2018). "Missing from the gun debate: Trump's own experience with concealed carry". Politico. Retrieved April 29, 2018. Mercedes Schlapp, his director of strategic communications, was a board member of the NRA before joining the White House.
  11. ↑ Greenwood, Max (September 12, 2017). "Mercedes Schlapp joins White House as senior communications adviser"". thehill.com. Washington DC: Capitol Hill Publishing. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  12. ↑ Darcy, Oliver. "Top White House communications aide has history of rhetoric strongly critical of Trump". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
  13. ↑ Stelter, Brian. "Here's how people reacted to Michelle Wolf's White House correspondents' roast". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  14. ↑ Hart, Benjamin. "Five White House Staffers Leak Meeting About White House Leaks". Daily Intelligencer. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  15. ↑ "The White House's John McCain death joke controversy, explained". Vox. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  16. ↑ Schlapp, Mercedes (May 11, 2012). "Churches Feel Persecuted by Obama". U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report L.P. Archived from the original on March 1, 2018.
  17. ↑ Riley, John (September 12, 2017). "Anti-LGBTQ activist Mercedes Schlapp joins White House Press Office". Metro Weekly.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.