Trump nominates Hope Hicks, Ric Grenell to government posts
The president has been rewarding his allies with such positions in recent weeks.
By NICK NIEDZWIADEK
President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced plans to appoint another slate of top allies to various government boards, yet another sign that his time in office is winding to a close.
The president named Hope Hicks to be a member of the board overseeing the prestigious Fulbright scholarship. Hicks has long been one of Trump’s closest confidants outside of members of his own family and returned to the White House this year after leaving earlier in his presidency. Her Covid-19 diagnosis this fall touched off a deluge of positive tests throughout Trump’s orbit, including the president himself.
The president also nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to serve on the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as White House staff secretary Derek Lyons, who notified Trump of his plans to leave the job earlier this month.
Trump also tapped Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the acting undersecretary of Defense for intelligence and security, to chair the Public Interest Declassification Board.
Other administration hands include Russ Vought, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget director, who was nominated for a spot on the U.S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors. Stephanie Grisham, the former White House press secretary who never held a formal public media briefing during her tenure, was nominated to the National Board for Education Sciences. And Ric Grenell, Trump’s former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence who later advised Trump’s reelection campaign from a post at the Republican National Committee, was nominated to serve on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
Those individuals were among the more than 40 people named to various “key positions” on panels such as the Commission of Fine Arts, the National Museum and Library Services Board, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
The list includes people who have contributed to Trump's political campaigns, as well as Paolo Zampolli, who has boasted of introducing Trump to now-first lady Melania Trump. Zampolli was nominated for a position on the Kennedy Center board.
Trump has rolled out a handful of other appointment lists in recent weeks, awarding posts to people such as Kellyanne Conway, a 2016 campaign manager and former counselor to the president, and Brian Hook, the Trump administration's former U.S. special representative for Iran.
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