Conservative Pundit Expected to Join White House Press Office

WASHINGTON — (CNN) Mercedes Schlapp, who until recently worked as a Fox News contributor, is expected to join the White House communications team in a senior role, a White House official confirmed to CNN Wednesday.

Schlapp, a veteran GOP communications strategist and conservative pundit, did not immediately return CNN’s requests for comment. White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said the White House has “no personnel announcement at this time.”

Politico first reported the news of Schlapp’s hire on Wednesday.

Schlapp will add an experienced Republican communications strategist to a White House communications department that has been bleeding staff over the last seven weeks.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer resigned in late July after New York financier Anthony Scaramucci was hired as communications director. Scaramucci forced an assistant press secretary out of his role before he himself was fired by new White House chief of staff John Kelly.

The White House’s rapid response director also left the White House in late August.

It’s not yet clear what Schlapp’s exact role will be and her hire has yet to be formally announced internally.

Schlapp previously served as a White House spokeswoman for Spanish-language media during President George W. Bush’s administration, following work on Bush’s two presidential campaigns.

Her husband is Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union and a longtime ally of President Donald Trump’s.

Schlapp will join a communications department currently led by Hope Hicks, the President’s longtime communications aide and confidant.

Hicks was announced in the role of “interim” communications director, but the White House has offered no indication that Hicks would be replaced by a more permanent communications director and her hire was welcomed by the President’s daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump on Twitter without any mention of her “interim” role.

Schlapp will join a long line of White House officials who were hired after holding prominent roles on television defending the President.

Trump, an avid watcher of Fox News and other TV news programs, has been drawn to hiring away other TV pundits to join his administration based on their performances defending him on TV.

The last such hire was Scaramucci.