1. Mercedes Schlapp is an American communications specialist and political commentator for both English and Spanish media.
17 Facts About Mercedes Schlapp
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Mercedes Schlapp has served in two presidential administrations as director of specialty media under George W Bush and as White House Director of Strategic Communications in the Trump administration from September 2017 to July 2019.
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Mercedes Schlapp went on to work on the Trump 2020 re-election campaign as senior advisor for strategic communications.
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Mercedes Schlapp is co-founder of Cove Strategies, and advises media strategy for corporate and nonprofit organizations.
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Mercedes Schlapp is married to Matt Schlapp, the chair of the American Conservative Union.
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Mercedes Schlapp credits her interest in politics to her father, who was a political prisoner in 1960s Cuba under the regime of Fidel Castro.
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Mercedes Schlapp earned a bachelor's degree from Florida International University in 1994 and a master of public administration from George Washington University.
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Mercedes Schlapp worked as senior advisor for strategic communications on the Trump reelection campaign in 2020.
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Mercedes Schlapp is a regular co-host of Prime News with Jenn Pellegrino on Newsmax TV.
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Together with her husband Mercedes Schlapp founded Cove Strategies, a media strategy and lobbying firm based in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2009.
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Mercedes Schlapp was a board member of the National Rifle Association of America before joining the White House.
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Mercedes Schlapp was an aid consultant at the NRA, earning $60,000 from the NRA in 2015, and $45,000 in 2016, according to NRA tax filings.
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On September 12,2017, President Donald Trump's administration announced that Mercedes Schlapp would serve as Director of Strategic Communications.
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Mercedes Schlapp attracted attention when she and her husband left the White House Correspondents Dinner early in April 2018, saying that she was disgusted by comedian Michelle Wolf's jokes aimed at Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
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In May 2018, Mercedes Schlapp defended White House aide Kelly Sadler after she joked that John McCain's opposition to CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel was irrelevant because "he's dying anyway".
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Mercedes Schlapp called President Barack Obama's decision to support it a "political ploy".
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In January of 2023, Mercedes Schlapp was named as a defendant in a lawsuit by a former aide to Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker.