The First Lady’s policy director, Reagan Hedlund, has resigned her role in favor of finding other work in government, according to Politico‘s sources inside the White House.
The former executive assistant on the National Security Council joined Melania Trump’s policy team seven months ago, working on multiple public initiatives, including the widely talked about “Be Best” campaign, an effort that seems to have been discarded the day the First Lady elected to wear her message-bearing green jacket with “I Don’t Really Care, Do U” stitched on the back.
Hedlund’s departure is a reliable portrait of the kind of hiring practices that have plagued the Trump administration since day one — putting people from seemingly unrelated fields into positions they’re not familiar with and sometimes have no interest in.
Hedlund, speaking to Politico, said that she was eager to get back to foreign policy issues, as she had been involved with on the NSC:
I am very grateful to the first lady for the opportunity to help launch her policy initiative. It was a rare opportunity to contribute at such a high level. It was a difficult decision to leave. However, I have decided to return to my roots in the foreign policy world.”
The timing of Hedlund’s leaving is suspect to some: It is in recent days and weeks that Melania has begun to assert her independence from her husband’s policies and positions, with reports that the two argued about what news channels to watch, as well as the First Lady’s public disagreement with Trump’s policy of separating families at the border as a way to deter immigrants from coming to the United States.
The latter position was no surprise to many who know Melania — or indeed almost anyone who is a mother to children of their own — and was widely condemned until the President officially overturned his own decision to treat every border crossing as a criminal offense rather than simply sending undocumented immigrants through a civil process.
The First Lady’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, confirmed Hedlund’s departure:
She is no longer with our office and we wish her our best.”
Featured image via screen capture
