Hope Hicks (October 21, 1988)

Testifying in a court of law can be very stressful. Now imagine what it would be like to be the prosecution’s witness against your ‘boss’ of 8 years. Yes, like Hope Hicks, you would be nervous, too.

Mr. Trump was elected, but The Journal was not done digging. In early 2018, it published an article exposing Mr. Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Ms. Daniels. When asked about that, Ms. Hicks became fuzzy, saying she could not recall the period. She grew considerably more tense, clenching her jaw and stumbling a bit in her speech.

Ms. Hicks said she did not have knowledge of the records Mr. Trump is accused of falsifying. Those records, prosecutors say, disguised Mr. Trump’s repayment of Mr. Cohen for the hush money.

And at times, she seemed to aid the defense. When a prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, asked about Mr. Trump’s reaction to the initial The Wall Street Journal article, she said that he was “concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife.” That response recalled the defense’s opening statement, in which Mr. Trump was portrayed as a family man — and helped provide an alternative motive for efforts to cover up damaging information to which prosecutors have already linked him.

Still, Ms. Hicks’s testimony was key to the prosecution’s case, including when she recalled a potentially crucial conversation: “I believe I heard Mr. Trump speaking to Mr. Cohen shortly after the story was published,” she said, which prosecutors might use to argue that Mr. Trump was involved in the machinations.

And she delivered a memorable observation that bolstered the prosecution’s argument that Mr. Trump directed Mr. Cohen’s payment. She scoffed at a prosecution question prompting her to consider whether Mr. Cohen “would have made a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels out of the kindness of his heart.”

That sort of altruistic move, she said, “would be out of character for Michael.”

The testimony marked a stunning spectacle: a former president’s confidante turned against him.

New York Times

Oops!

Ms. Hicks’ birth time is unknown, so I have randomized the timing. In reality, the time could have been an hour or so later, which would have placed Jupiter near the Descendant, typifying when she started working for Trump. There are two inconjuncts. Each of them helps us to understand her motivations.

Sun Inconjunct Mars

You have a rather strong will, which may be difficult to control. This is because your way of doing something tends to interfere with what you want to gain by doing it. Your actions in some situations may surprise people by contradicting what they have learned about you as a person. Inside of yourself, you may even begin to feel that you can’t approve of the way you act, or you may feel that you can’t deal comfortably with the results of your actions. In other words, you get yourself into real jams.

Planets in Youth (page 80) by Robert Hand (1977)

Aha!

Jupiter Inconjunct Neptune

With this aspect you must learn to stand up for yourself and demand your rights forthrightly and directly. Often you feel that you don’t have enough energy to assert yourself or that any such effort would be futile. Unfortunately, some people with this aspect learn to work behind the scenes or dishonestly. Others simply give up or take a defeatist attitude toward life.

Planets in Youth (page 236) by Robert Hand (1977)

“Deny, deny, deny.”

Is that clear enough for you? I rest my case, m’lord.