Hope Hicks is like family to Donald Trump.
Loyal, discrete and polished, the 29 year old has enjoyed the protection and admiration of her boss for years.
He trusted the former model enough to appoint her White House communications director, where she remained his closest ally.
Whichever way it gets spun, the departure of Hicks will quite understandably be a blow to a man who values fealty above all else.
But there's another problem.
The news of Hicks' resignation came just 24 hours after she reportedly admitted to the house intelligence committee investigating collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia that she had told white lies on behalf of the president.
It also comes days after Hicks found herself uncomfortably close to a scandal involving security clearance for a close presidential aide who had been accused of domestic assault, a man with whom Hicks was having a relationship.
All this while special counsel Robert Mueller circles the Oval Office, trying to work out if anyone in or near it was involved in colluding with Russia to swing the 2016 election.
He is reportedly interested in the now infamous summer 2016 meeting between Russian officials promising dirt on Hillary Clinton and Trump campaign team members including Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump's husband Jared Kushner.
Months later, Hicks allegedly helped draft a rather misleading press release about the nature of that meeting.
Hicks has already met Mueller to help him with his inquiries.
Did her testimony to the House intelligence committee contradict the information she gave the special counsel?
Maybe Hicks is going because she was tired of her gruelling role and had been planning this for weeks
Or was it that she suddenly realised she had become a liability to the president and needed to leave?
Perhaps Trump's team made the calculation for her.
More from Analysis
In a superficial way it doesn't matter what the truth is, because in politics perception is everything.
Trump, who has declared himself the ultimate salesman, knows that better than anyone.
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Sky News
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