White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp will soon leave the West Wing to join President Trump’s 2020 reelection team, Trump announced in a tweet Monday evening.
I am excited to announce that @MercedesSchlapp will soon be joining our Campaign. She feels so strongly about our Country & its future. We are setting records in so many ways, & we will keep it going. Mercedes has done a fantastic job within the Administration & I am so thankful!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 1, 2019
Both Schlapp’s husband Matt Schlapp, head of the American Conservative Union, and Campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted about the move. Schlapp’s husband likened her work for the campaign to fighting “socialism” in the U.S.
2 yrs ago @mercedesschlapp took on a tough task to improve WH comms ops and now she is ready for a new challenge outside govt. Like her Cuban Dad’s response to Castro, she will keep helping @realDonaldTrump to fight socialism here. The Schlapps remain all in for 2020! #KAG
— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) July 1, 2019
I’m excited to welcome @mercedesschlapp to the 2020 campaign. She is an effective communicator that will help us with strategy as well as Latino outreach with her bilingual capabilities. We are good friends and it's great to have another die-hard @realDonaldTrump supporter!
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) July 1, 2019
The move was reportedly expected, according to the New York Times. With Stephanie Grisham’s appointment as communications director and White House press secretary, a number of changes in the press shop are expected, according to the Times. The moves are in part fueled by Trump’s ongoing irritation: despite the number of people in the press shop, he’s still plagued by negative coverage.
Schlapp told the Times she’d been in talks with White House senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner for several weeks.
