One of President Donald Trump's glamorous press aides is quitting the White House to launch a new communications venture. Sonny Joy Nelson, who serves as special assistant to the president and White House director of media affairs, is departing the White House to start Cornerstone Strategies, Axios first reported.
She told the publication that the name of her firm was 'inspired by Jesus as the cornerstone of my life and basis of my firm.' 'The goal is to create media that not only looks good, but communicates something real and lasting,' the top press aide added.
Nelson was one of Trump's first communications hires of his second term. She quickly went viral when a White House observer posted to X days after the 2025 inauguration: 'We are finally entering our Blonde Supremacy era.' The post featured a picture of Nelson, a blonde, walking White House press secretary Karolina Leavitt, a blonde, to one of her media hits alongside press aide Kieghan Nangle, another blonde.
Like Leavitt, Nelson is a young mother and is expecting her second child, another boy, in the fall. She gave birth to her son Isaiah in August 2023, after marrying Samuel Klingsporn, a college lacrosse player who entered the US Army, over the Fourth of July holiday the year before.
Nelson is the daughter of prominent North Carolina anti-abortion advocate Tonya Baker Nelson, the founder of the Pregnancy Resource Centers in North Carolina. Baker Nelson was pressured to have an abortion when she was pregnant in her mid-20s, she shared in a 2023 profile with Raleigh's News & Observer. She chose to keep her baby and Sonny Joy was born in 1996. Since 2005, Baker Nelson's opened three pregnancy centers.
While studying at North Carolina's Campbell University, where she was a cheerleader, Nelson worked in the family business as a marketing specialist. She graduated in 2018 and started working on Trump's 2020 reelection campaign in April 2019, moving her way up to the position of associate director of strategic communications.
Trump 2020 Communications Director Tim Murtaugh plucked Nelson's resume out of the pile - noticing her unique name - and that she had been working for Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. 'She earned the job by interviewing very well and she impressed me,' Murtaugh told the Daily Mail. 'But the only reason why I picked her resume out of that pile was because her name was Sonny.'
'And she has earned everything since then,' he continued. 'I guarantee you that you cannot find a single person who Sonny has encountered or worked with who doesn't think she is just the most delightful, smart capable, upbeat person that they have encountered in politics.'
After Trump lost the White House to President Joe Biden, Nelson followed longtime Trump communications guru Jason Miller to the social media startup Gettr. She also worked as a booking producer for Real America's Voice and as director of media affairs for the Republican National Committee, according to the White House.
During the Trump 2024 campaign, Nelson was Director of Media Affairs and Surrogates and was given a similar title when the White House announced her employment on January 24, 2025. Murtaugh suggested Sonny's fast ascent is because she's, well, sunny. 'When you work in politics, whether it's in Trumpworld or otherwise, it's really hard to maintain a positive attitude even sometimes, let alone all the time,' he said. 'From what I can tell, and from my personal experience in being around Sonny a lot, is that she has never had a bad day.'
Her last day at the White House is Friday.
