Trump Has Unveiled His Communications Team

On Thursday, Donald Trump's transition team announced that a number of his campaign standbys would be getting White House positions, including Hope Hicks, Sean Spicer, Jason Miller, and Dan Scavino. These four key members of his campaign will have top roles in the Trump administration as his senior communications team. “Sean, Hope, Jason and Dan have been key members of my team during the campaign and transition. I am excited they will be leading the team that will communicate my agenda that will Make America Great Again,” Trump is quoted as saying in the press release.

Hicks served as Trump's press secretary during his presidential campaign and will serve as director of strategic communications in his White House. Spicer is the communications director for the Republican National Committee and became one of Trump's most vocal surrogates. He is set to serve as Trump's press secretary. He will be following chairman of the RNC, Reince Priebus, who will be Trump's White House chief of staff.

Miller and Scavino will be serving roles in the White House that are largely identical to their campaign positions. Miller, who served as a senior communications adviser to Trump during the campaign, has been appointed director of communications. Scavino, who served as director of social media for Trump's presidential campaign, has been appointed to White House director of social media.

Spicer recently made comments that raised some concerns about how open the Trump administration would be with the press (not that it has exactly been direct, clear, or forthcoming at any point thus far). “I think you have to look at everything. And so I don’t know that it [the White House press briefing] needs to be daily. I don’t know that they need to be on camera," Spicer told Fox News' Megyn Kelly last week.

None of these announced roles is necessarily surprising, as Trump has ended up appointing a number of his key campaign staffers to White House positions. Hours before these four appointments were announced, the Trump transition team released a statement that campaign manager Kellyanne Conway would be serving as counselor to the president.