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Disney actress Caroline Sunshine joins the White House press team

Before he was President of the United States, Donald Trump was, among other things, a television host and producer.

Lately, it appears Mr Trump is using his eye for TV talent to repopulate the ever-diminishing White House team, with 22-year-old actress Caroline Sunshine the latest face to join the administration.

Ms Sunshine, a former Disney Channel star, has been appointed a press assistant at the White House, where she will likely assist Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

She is the latest person with a broadcast background to join the White House – the incoming National Economic Council director is CNBC host Larry Kudlow, while Fox News analyst John Bolton will be the next national security adviser.

In 2017, Omarosa Manigault Newman, a contestant on The Apprentice – the show Mr Trump hosted before taking office – and Celebrity Big Brother, was appointed communications director of the White House’s Office of Public Liaison.

She was fired in December 2017 and had to be forcibly removed from the building after allegedly refusing to believe Mr Trump had sacked her.

As for Ms Sunshine, she has already dabbled in White House happenings as an intern, according to White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters.

“In college, [Ms Sunshine] was involved with the American Enterprise Institute and an active member of her school’s Model United Nations team,” Ms Walters told CNN.

“Prior to her internship at the White House, Caroline interned for the Office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the College Republican National Committee and the California Republican Party.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCV710Zhe34/?hl=en&taken-by=carolinesunshine

The California-based actress is best known for starring in the dance-themed Disney channel series Shake it Up, which aired from 2010 to 2013. Most recently, she appeared in the 2017 television movie Mommy, I Didn’t Do It.

Much like her new boss, Ms Sunshine is a fan of Twitter, where she has more than 500,000 followers and tweets about citizenship ceremonies, Memorial Day, NASA’s new astronauts and The Bachelorette.

In November, Ms Sunshine shared a photo with her 235,000 Instagram followers of a badge that read ‘I voted’ with a caption urging her fans to ‘GO VOTE’.

Despite her youth, Ms Sunshine has more political experience than many of Mr Trump’s existing advisers, including his daughter Ivanka Trump, a former model and businesswoman, and Jared Kushner, Ivanka’s husband, who is a former real estate developer.

The White House has been riddled with staff departures and sackings in recent months. Hope Hicks, a former model, resigned as White House communications director in February and is yet to be replaced.

Earlier this month, Mr Trump revealed on Twitter he was ousting national security adviser HR McMaster for Mr Bolton, a diplomat, attorney and regular talking head on Fox News.

He joins United States Department of State spokesperson Heather Nauert, a former Fox News anchor, communications adviser Mercedes Schlapp, a former commentator, and Treasury Department spokesman Tony Sayegh, also a Fox commentator.

Mr Trump is a Fox enthusiast – he recently tried (and failed) to recruit occasional Fox guest Joseph diGenova as one of his lawyers and regularly retweets news stories from the Rupert Murdoch-owned network.

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