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To round out his
communications team, the president-elect appointed loyalists
from his upstart presidential campaign. Hope Hicks, Trump's sole
spokeswoman when he began what was considered a longshot
candidacy in June 2015, will be director of strategic
communications.
Jason Miller was appointed director of communications and Dan
Scavino was named director of social media.
Spicer, 45, served as RNC spokesman during Trump's presidential
campaign, alongside party chairman Reince Priebus, who stood by
Trump amid furious opposition from establishment Republicans and
was rewarded with the chief of staff position.
Acerbic and professional, Spicer, a Navy Reserve commander, has
been openly critical of media coverage of Republican candidates
and the president-elect, but insists the future U.S. leader has
a high regard for press freedom.
"We understand and respect the role that the press plays in a
democracy. It is healthy, it's important. But it's a two-way
street," Spicer told Politico recently, before bashing the news
outlet for what he said was exclusively negative coverage.
Spicer, who has been a spokesman for the Trump transition team,
has a long background in public affairs.
He led a turnaround in the RNC's public affairs operation after
taking over as communications director in 2011. He beefed up
social media operations, built an in-house TV production team
and created a rapid response effort to reply to attacks.
Spicer worked in President George W. Bush's administration as
the assistant U.S. Trade Representative for media and public
affairs. Before that, he was communications director for the
Republican Conference in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Spicer has tried to reassure news organizations that Trump will
not try to ban them from covering him, as the president-elect
sometimes sought to do during the election campaign.
But Spicer and other Trump aides have indicated the new
president would shake up the status quo in White House dealings
with the media, including re-examining the need for daily
televised news briefings and the practice of assigned seating in
the briefing room.
"I think we have to look at everything," Spicer told Fox News
when asked about the briefings. "And so I don't know that it
needs to be daily. I don't know that they all need to be on
camera."
(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chris Reese and Leslie
Adler)
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