# Mercedes Schlapp Republican communications strategist and wife of ACU/CPAC chairman [[Matt Schlapp]] (married 2002; they met in the [[George W. Bush]] White House, where she was director of specialty media). She served as [[Donald Trump]]'s White House Director of Strategic Communications from September 2017 to July 2019, then joined the Trump 2020 re-election campaign. With her husband she co-founded a communications and political consulting firm in Alexandria, Virginia, and was named as a co-defendant in the 2023 Huffman suit against him (see [[Matt Schlapp]]). The couple's overlapping roles — CPAC, the Trump White House and campaign, and lobbying via [[Cove Strategies]] — are a compact case of the [[Revolving Door]].