ميرسيدس شلاب (بالإنجليزية: Mercedes Schlapp) هي سياسية ومعلقة صحفية أمريكية من الحزب الجمهوري ولدت في يوم 27 ديسمبر 1972 في مدينة ميامي في فلوريدا لعائلة مهاجرة من كوبا. أكملت دراسة العلاقات الخارجية في جامعة جورج واشنطن. شغلت منصب مستشارة البيت الأبيض للاتصالات الاستراتيجية من سنة 2017 إلى 2019 في إدارة دونالد ترامب.[1]
حياتها الشخصية
ميرسيدس شلاب هو أول جيل كوبي أمريكي ولد في فلوريدا. وهي متزوجة من مات شلاب، رئيس اتحاد المحافظين الأمريكي.[2] ولشيلابس خمس بنات.[3] ينسب لها اهتمامها بالسياسة إلى والدها، الذي هرب من الأسر كسجين سياسي لنظام كاسترو في الستينيات في كوبا.[4]
Schlapp worked on local and national political campaigns, as well as the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns for جورج بوش الابن، and was Director of Specialty Media in his administration.[7]
Schlapp also worked as senior advisor for strategic communications on the Trump reelection campaign in 2020.
Together with her husband Schlapp founded Cove Strategies, a media strategy and lobbying firm based in ألكسندريا، in 2009.[12] According to Open Secrets, the firm performs services mainly in the areas of telecommunications, trade, and health issues and earned greater income during the Trump administration than it did during the Obama administration.[13][14]
NRA
She was a board member of the الاتحاد القومي للأسلحة before joining the White House.[15] She 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.[12]
إدارة دونالد ترامب
On September 12, 2017, رئيس الولايات المتحدةدونالد ترامب's administration announced that Schlapp would serve as مدير الاتصالات الاستراتيجية في البيت الأبيض.[16] During her time with the Trump Administration, Schlapp focused on issues such as school safety, opioids, infrastructure and trade.[4] Prior to joining the Trump administration, Schlapp made numerous statements that were strongly critical of Trump.[17]
Schlapp attracted attention when she and her husband left the جمعية المراسلين في البيت الأبيض early in April 2018, saying that she was disgusted by comedian ميشيل وولف jokes aimed at Press Secretary سارة هاكابي ساندرز.[12][18] 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".[12]
In May 2018, Schlapp defended White House aide Kelly Sadler after she joked that جون ماكين's opposition to CIA Director nominee جينا هاسبل was irrelevant because "he’s dying anyway".[19][20]
In June 2020, amid the احتجاجات جورج فلويد against racism and police brutality, she retweeted praise for a man who was wielding a chainsaw against protestors while he was yelling the N-word.[21][22] After بوليتيكو asked for comment, she retweeted another account that posted the video of the chainsaw-wielding man but which muted the N-word.[21] After Politico published the story, she apologized.[21]
