hope hicks has never in the now well documented span of donald trump's political career been known to do anything other than carry out the boss' directives. she is not known to free lance, and there are no reports of her acting on any consequential press matter without the president's approval. reporting at the time confirms that the crafting of the president's statement aboard air force one consumed the president's staff and divided his communications team. from "the washington post" on july 31st, quote, the strategy the advisers graed to be for donald trump jr. to release a statement to get ahead of the story. they wanted to be truthful so their account couldn't be repudiated later if the full details emerged. but within hours at the president's direction, the plan changed. flying home from germany on july 8th aboard air force one, trump personally dictated a statement in which trump jr. said he and the russian lawyer had primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children. when they met in june 2016.