Mercedes Schlapp (née Viana; born December 27, 1972) is an American lobbyist and columnist. From September 2017 to July 2019, she served as White House Director of Strategic Communications in the Trump administration. Since July 2019, she has worked on the Trump 2020 re-election campaign.

Personal life
Schlapp is a second generation American Cuban-American born in Florida, whose father was jailed for six years by the government of Cuba. She is married to Matt Schlapp, the chair of the American Conservative Union. The Schlapps have five daughters who attend a Catholic church.

Career

Media
Schlapp worked on local and national political campaigns, as well as the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns for George W. Bush, and was Director of Specialty Media in his administration. Later she was a Fox News contributor and a columnist for several publications including U.S. News & World Report and The Washington Times.

Lobbyist

Together with her husband Schlapp founded Cove Strategies, a lobbying firm based in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2009. Since president Trump entered the White House, the income of the firm surged (from $600,000 in 2015 to more than a $1 million in 2017). Koch Industries was the firm’s first client.

NRA
She was a board member of the National Rifle Association before joining the White House. She was an aid consultant at the NRA, earning $60,000 from the NRA in 2015, and $45,000 in 2016, according to
N.R.A. tax filings.

Trump administration
On September 12, 2017, President Donald Trump’s administration announced that Schlapp would serve as Director of Strategic Communications. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Schlapp made numerous statements that were strongly critical of Trump.

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. In a limousine en route to an exclusive NBC/MSNBC afterparty, she tweeted that Wolf’s comedy routine is “why America hates the out of touch leftist media elite”. In May 2018, 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”.

Political positions
Schlapp has stated an opposition to same-sex marriage, calling President Barack Obama’s decision to support it a “political ploy”.