Steve Hilton | |
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 Hilton in 2015 | |
| Born | Stephen Glenn Charles Hilton (1969-08-25)25 August 1969 (age 55) |
| Citizenship |
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| Alma mater | New College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Political commentator |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Father | István Csák |
Stephen Glenn Charles Hilton (born 25 August 1969)[1][2] is an English and American political commentator, former political adviser, and contributor forFox News Channel.[3] He served as director of strategy for the British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron from 2010 to 2012.[4] Hilton hostedThe Next Revolution, a weekly current affairs show forFox News from 2017 to 2023.[5] He is a proponent of what he calls "positivepopulism" and a strong endorser of U.S. PresidentDonald Trump.[6] He was a co-founder ofCrowdpac,[7] but resigned as CEO in 2018 due to conflicting values with the company.[8]
Hilton's parents, whose original surname was Hircsák[9] (which some sources spell "Hircksac"),[10] emigrated from Hungary during theHungarian Revolution of 1956. They came to Britain, initially claimingasylum, and anglicised their name to Hilton. Hilton's father,István, had beengoaltender for theHungarian national ice hockey team and was considered one of the best ice hockey players in Europe during the 1930s.[11][9][12] After arriving in Britain, his parents initially worked in catering atHeathrow Airport. They divorced when Steve was five years old[9] resulting in what he has described as a struggle and great financial hardship; his mother worked in a shoe store but was dependent primarily onstate benefits, and the two lived in a cold, damp basement apartment.[13]
He was given abursary toChrist's Hospital School inHorsham in Sussex, before studyingPhilosophy, Politics, and Economics atNew College atOxford University.
After graduating, Hilton worked forConservative Central Office, where he came to know David Cameron andRachel Whetstone, who became his wife and, later, Senior Vice-President of Policy and Communications forUber.[14] He liaised with the party's advertising firm,Saatchi and Saatchi, and was praised byMaurice Saatchi, who remarked, "No one reminds me as much of me when young as Steve."[10] During this time Hilton bought the "New Labour, New Danger" demon eyes poster campaign[15] for the Conservatives' pre-general election campaign in 1996, which won an award from the advertising industry'sCampaign magazine at the beginning of 1997.[16] The Conservatives later experienced their worst election defeat for more than half a century, with some journalists speculating that the poster contrasted unfavourably with Labour's more positive campaign.[17] In 2005, Hilton lost to futureSecretary of State for EducationMichael Gove in the selection process for theSurrey Heath constituency of Parliament.[18]
Hilton talked of the need to "replace" the traditionally minded grassroots membership of the Conservative Party, which he considered to be preventing the party from adopting a more metropolitan attitude for social issues.[19]
It is alleged that Hilton said "I voted Green" after theLabour landslide of 2001,[10] but then worked with Cameron to re-fashion the Conservative Party as "green" andprogressive. According toThe Economist Hilton "remains appallingly understood".[20] There were reports that Hilton's 'blue sky thinking' caused conflict in Whitehall and, according to Nicholas Watt ofThe Guardian, Liberal Democrats around deputy prime ministerNick Clegg considered him to be a "refreshing but wacky thinker".[21]
Hilton was satirised by the BBC comedyThe Thick of It as the herbal-tea drinking publicist Stewart Pearson.[22][23]
Hilton was director of strategy for the UK prime minister David Cameron from 2010 to 2012.[24][4] His last memo concerned the advocacy of severe decreases of the number of civil servants in the United Kingdom[25] and further decreases of welfare.[26]
Hilton is a co-founder and former CEO of Crowdpac.com, a Silicon Valley technology start-up company.[27] In April 2016, Crowdpac initiated a beta service in the UK.[28] Hilton resigned fromCrowdpac in May 2018.[29] Crowdpac also suspended fundraising for Republican candidates.
In May 2015, Hilton joined the UK research institutePolicy Exchange as a visiting scholar.[30]
He is the author of theSunday Times bestsellerMore Human: Designing A World Where People Come First, published in May 2015.[31][32] It advocates smaller, more human-scale organisations and is critical of large governmental and business, includingfactory farms and banks.[33] With co-author Giles Gibbons, he wroteGood Business: Your World Needs You, published in 2002.[34]
He spent a year as a visiting fellow atStanford University'sHoover Institution, has been a scholar at Stanford’sFreeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and has taught at Stanford’sHasso Plattner Institute of Design.[35][36][37]
In 2023, Hilton initiated Golden Together, a bipartisan research institute, withLanhee Chen andGloria Romero.[38][39] The same year, he proposed aballot initiative designed to reduce thehousing shortage in California.[40] The measure would prohibit private lawsuits related to theCalifornia Environmental Quality Act and capimpact fees paid by homebuilders and developers.[41] TheSan Francisco Chronicle's Joe Garofoli termed the ballot initiative a "developer giveaway", noting that it would give developers two of their major desires, but also that it may help stabilize construction workforces and draw more attention to housing issues in California.[40]
In November 2016, writing forFox News, he announced his endorsement forDonald Trump overHillary Clinton in thepresidential election.[42] Starting in 2017, Hilton presented the weekly showThe Next Revolution onFox News Channel.[43]
He was criticised for not rebutting his guestAnn Coulter when she falsely asserted that arecording ofmigrant children who were separated from their parents by the Trump administration crying were actors.[44]
In March 2019, Hilton claimed thatCNN,MSNBC, formerCIA DirectorJohn Brennan, and formerDirector ofNational IntelligenceJames Clapper as well as Democratic congress membersAdam Schiff andEric Swalwell were the "real agents ofPutin" for playing a role in "dividing" the United States over the myriadlinks between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies.[45]
On June 1, 2023, Fox News announced thatThe Next Revolution would be ending its run as Hilton began “to focus on his new California non-partisan policy organization….” Hilton remains with the network as a contributor.[46]
In 2020, during theCOVID-19 pandemic in the United States and soon aftersocial distancing measures andlockdowns were implemented, Hilton recommended thatPresidentDonald Trump end the measures. Hilton criticised "our ruling class and their TV mouthpieces [for] whipping up fear over this virus". Hilton suggested that "the cure could be worse than the disease"; or more specifically that the long-term public health consequences resulting from the economic damage of a lockdown would be worse than the short-term public health consequences of the virus itself. Trump later appeared to mimic what Hilton said in one of his tweets.[47][48][49]
In January 2021, Hilton asserted that theWuhan Institute of Virologywas the most likely source of the COVID-19 virus and claimed that Dr.Anthony Fauci, director of theNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to the president, commissioned the work which resulted in the virus's development.PolitiFact described Hilton's claims as "rely[ing] on a series of unsubstantiated allegations to spin a conspiracy theory about the virus being a lab creation.".[50][51]
After Trump was defeated byJoe Biden in the2020 presidential election, Hilton demanded an investigation intoclaims of election fraud on his Fox News broadcast, clips of which were tweeted by Trump.[11][52]
Hilton is married toRachel Whetstone, a former aide (political secretary) toMichael Howard, former head of communications atGoogle, former senior vice-president of policy and communications ofUber, and current chief communications officer ofNetflix.[14][53] The couple weregodparents to David Cameron's son, Ivan, who died at the age of six.[54] Hilton became a U.S. citizen in May 2021.[55]
Quotations related toSteve Hilton at Wikiquote| International | |
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| National | |
