Sean Spicer

Spicer is the son of Kathryn (née Grossman) and Michael William Spicer (1944–2016).

The Spicers were living in Port Washington when Sean was born at North Shore Hospital in Manhasset, New York.

Spicer grew up in the East Bay area of Rhode Island.

His father was an insurance agent and his mother is the department manager in the East Asian studies department at Brown University.

Spicer is of partial Irish descent, and was raised Catholic.

Sean Michael Spicer (born September 23, 1971) is a former American political aide who served as the 30th White House Press Secretary and as White House Communications Director under President Donald Trump in 2017.

From 1985 to 1989, Spicer attended Portsmouth Abbey School, a Catholic boarding school in Rhode Island.

While in high school, he volunteered for local political campaigns in Rhode Island and continued those activities while at college.

He attended Connecticut College from 1989 to 1993 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in government.

In college he was a student senator.

In the late 1990s, he worked for representatives Mike Pappas (R-NJ), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Mark Foley (R-FL), and Clay Shaw (R-FL).

In April 1993, an article in the student paper, The College Voice, referred to Spicer as "Sean Sphincter"; Spicer submitted a complaint to the paper and followed up by pushing for legal action against the paper, for which he was satirized by the campus satirical publication Blats.

The incident was later cited as a precursor of his contentious relationship with the media.

After graduating from college in 1993, Spicer worked on a number of political campaigns.

In 1999, Spicer joined the United States Navy Reserve as a public affairs officer; he currently holds the rank of Commander.

From 2000 to 2001, Spicer was the communications director on the House Government Reform Committee, and from 2001 to 2002, he was director of incumbent retention at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

From 2003 to 2005, Spicer was the communications director and spokesman for the House Budget Committee.

He subsequently was the communications director for the Republican Conference of the U.S. House of Representatives, and then, from 2006 to 2009, was the assistant for media and public affairs at the Office of the United States Trade Representative in President George W. Bush's administration.

He wore an Easter bunny suit during the White House Easter Egg Rolls.

From 2009 to 2011, Spicer was a partner at Endeavor Global Strategies, a public relations firm he co-founded to represent foreign governments and corporations with business before the U.S. government.

His clients included the government of Colombia, which was then seeking a free trade agreement with the U.S. amid public criticism of its human rights record.

Spicer was communications director of the Republican National Committee from 2011 to 2017, and its chief strategist from 2015 to 2017.

During his tenure as White House press secretary, Spicer made a number of public statements that were controversial and false, and he developed a contentious relationship with the White House press corps.

Spicer worked full-time at the firm until February 2011.

In February 2011, Spicer became the communications director of the Republican National Committee.

At the RNC, he enlarged the organization's social media operations, built an in-house TV production team, and created a rapid response program to reply to attacks.

In 2012, he acquired a master's degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.

In February 2015, he was given an additional role, as chief strategist for the party.

While at the RNC, Spicer was critical of then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

In June 2015, after Trump said illegal immigrants from Mexico were involved in crimes in the U.S., Spicer said "painting Mexican Americans with that kind of a brush, I think that's probably something that is not helpful to the cause."

In July 2015, he released a public criticism of Trump's comments on U.S. Senator John McCain, saying "there is no place in our party or our country for comments that disparage those who have served honorably."

As of December 2016, he was assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff's naval reserve contingent in Washington, D.C., and in 2017 was a member of the Department of Defense Criminal Investigative Task Force.

On December 22, 2016, Spicer was named the White House press secretary for Donald Trump.

On December 24, he was also named the communications director for the Trump administration after the sudden and unexpected resignation of Jason Miller.

The first such instance occurred on January 21, 2017, the day following Trump's inauguration.

Spicer repeated the claim that crowds at Trump's inauguration ceremony were the largest ever at such an event and that the press had deliberately underestimated the number of spectators.

After this statement was widely criticized, Trump aide Kellyanne Conway said that Spicer had presented what she called "alternative facts" regarding the inauguration's attendance numbers.

Spicer resigned as White House Press Secretary on July 21, 2017, although he remained at the White House in an unspecified capacity until August 31.

Since leaving the White House, Spicer has published the memoir The Briefing: Politics, the Press, and the President, appeared as a contestant on season 28 of Dancing with the Stars, and hosted a political talk show on Newsmax TV.

An April 2017 Politico/Morning Consult poll showed that Spicer had a nationwide name recognition of 60%, much higher than most other White House staffers and previous press secretaries.