Melania Trump's senior aide to replace Sarah Sanders

Stephanie Grisham, a top aide to First Lady Melania Trump, will be the next White House press secretary, replacing Sarah Huckabee Sanders and taking on an elevated role as President Donald Trump's communications director.

Melania Trump announced the news on Twitter on Tuesday. “She has been with us since 2015 - @potus & I can think of no better person to serve the Administration & our country. Excited to have Stephanie working for both sides of the @WhiteHouse. #BeBest,” she wrote

Grisham, who serves as the first lady’s deputy chief of staff and communications director, had long been seen as the leading candidate for the job. She won the trust of both the president and the first lady after working on Trump’s campaign and as a deputy to then-press secretary Sean Spicer before moving to the East Wing.

Since going to work for the first lady, Grisham has emerged as a fierce advocate for Melania Trump, pushing back on negative stories about her both behind the scenes and in public.

She will take on dual role in the East Wing and West Wing, a massive portfolio that will make her the lead public spokeswoman for both the first lady and the president. She will continue doing communications for Melania Trump, at least for now, as she transitions to her new role. And she will serve as both White House press secretary and communications director, a senior administration official said.

She is accompanying Trump on his trip to Japan for the G-20 summit this week, the official added.

Grisham will become Trump's sixth communications director, stepping into the role vacated most recently by former Fox News executive Bill Shine, who resigned in March. White House aides had previously said that Trump didn't intend to install a replacement for Shine, arguing that the president sees himself as his own communications director.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday afternoon, Trump praised Grisham, adding that he offered her the job earlier in the day after multiple people encouraged him to choose her, including Hope Hicks, his former senior adviser.

"She’s here. She knows everybody. She actually gets along with the media very well," Trump said, calling Grisham "very talented." Trump said deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley will stay on in his current role.

Sanders, announced earlier this month that she planned to step down and return to her home state of Arkansas, where she is seriously considering eventually running for governor. Sanders is leaving the White House at the end of this week.

Trump had been considering several candidates to replace Sanders. But aides said he was inclined to choose a woman for the role, as well as somebody he knew well. That made Grisham an obvious choice. Grisham has been working at the White House for the entirety of Trump’s time in office. And since Grisham moved to the East Wing, Trump has frequently joked about stealing her back, a White House official said.

“I’m sad to leave the WH, but so happy to leave our team in such great hands. Stephanie will do a phenomenal job. Proud to have another mom and a great friend in this role,” Sanders wrote on Twitter.

Grisham takes the helm at a tumultuous period for the Trump administration that has been frequently marked by tensions between the White House and the press. It has been more than 100 days since Sanders held a formal, televised briefing. Trump pushed for fewer briefings because he believes they had given reporters an opportunity to grandstand. Instead, Sanders mostly takes questions from reporters on the White House driveway after doing interviews on cable news networks, namely Fox News.

Sanders also came under intense criticism for her unequivocal defense of Trump and for sparring with reporters. Public attention particularly focused on Sanders after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report, which said Sanders acknowledged her claim that "countless" FBI officials told her they were pleased with Trump's move to fire FBI chief James Comey was a "slip of the tongue" and not based on facts. Sanders later insisted that the thrust of the comment was accurate.

That glare is expected to now shift to Grisham, who has a much lower profile and isn’t a frequent presence on television.

Grisham is one of the most influential figures in Melania Trump's orbit. She has chastised reporters for what she views as tabloid-style coverage of the first lady. She also released a statement last year on behalf of Melania Trump calling for the ouster of one of the top officials on the National Security Council, Mira Ricardel, the deputy to national security adviser John Bolton. The White House subsequently removed Ricardel.