Skip to main content

Dan Scavino, Jr.

White House Director of Social Media and Assistant to the President

Dan Scavino was a 16-year old golf caddy-turned-General Manager at Trump’s Briar Hill Country Club and joined the Trump Campaign in June 2015 as Director of Social Media.

Russian social media executive sought to help Trump campaign in 2016, emails show

December 7, 2017  “While mainly used by Russian-speaking users, the site has also become known in Europe — and increasingly in the United States — as a platform embraced by white-nationalist groups, according to groups that track their activity. Far-right politicians in Germany and other countries have VK profiles, Albright said. The website also directed substantial amounts of traffic to ­ Breitbart News and Infowars, a popular conservative conspiracy site, during the 2016 campaign, he said.

The overture with VK was brokered by Rob Goldstone, a British music promoter who asked Trump Jr. last year to meet with a Russian lawyer who he said had compromising information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

The executive at Vkontakte, or VK, Russia’s equivalent to Facebook, emailed Donald Trump Jr. and social media director Dan Scavino in January and again in November of last year, offering to help promote Trump’s campaign to its nearly 100 million users, according to people familiar with the messages.

“It will be the top news in Russia,” Konstantin Sidorkov, who serves as VK’s director of partnership marketing, wrote on Nov. 5, 2016.

While Scavino expressed interest in learning more at one point, it is unclear whether the campaign pursued the idea. An attorney for Trump Jr. said his client forwarded a pitch about the concept to Scavino early in the year and could not recall any further discussion about it.

Scavino, now the White House social media director, did not respond to requests for comment. A White House spokeswoman declined to comment.

The emails, which were read to The Washington Post and confirmed by people with knowledge of their contents, show a new point of direct contact between an influential Russian and advisers to Trump during the 2016 race.

“Please feel free to send me whatever you have,” Scavino wrote to Goldstone on Jan. 19. “Thank you so much for looking out for Mr. Trump and his presidential campaign.”

A few days later, Sidorkov emailed Scavino, Trump Jr. and Donald Trump’s longtime assistant Rhona Graff.

“Nice to meet you and your team,” Sidorkov wrote, attaching information about VK and its social media reach.

Sidorkov joined VK as a partner relations manager in July 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He had apparently crossed paths with Trump at least once before, at the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Sidorkov posted photographs from the ­after-party on his VK page, including one in which Trump posed with a thumbs up next to Olivia Culpo, the previous year’s winner, and musician Nick Jonas.

Sidorkov said he was 18 and working for a radio station during the event and had not met Trump personally but rather taken pictures while standing in a crowd.

Sidorkov — a young, jet-setting tech executive who documents his frequent travels on Instagram and other sites — posted a photograph this July posing next to Vladi­mir Putin. The Russian president had just participated in a Q-and-A session with schoolchildren and VK users.”

Trump aide accused of Hatch Act violation after urging Amash primary challenge

Politico By DARREN SAMUELSOHN and REBECCA MORIN  

“Dan Scavino Jr., director of social media and senior White House adviser, tweeted that Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) is a “big liability” for his state and encouraged a GOP primary opponent to oust him in 2018.”.@realDonaldTrump is bringing auto plants & jobs back to Michigan. @justinamash is a big liability. #TrumpTrain, defeat him in primary,” Scavino wrote.

But that tweet, sent from Scavino’s personal Twitter account, immediately landed him in controversy as ethics lawyers called out Scavino for possibly violating the Hatch Act, a Depression-era law that regulates campaigning by government officials.

“Look at the official photo on this page. Read the Hatch Act and fire this man NOW. Someone call OSC,” Richard Painter, a former ethics attorney in the George W. Bush White House, wrote on Twitter, referring to the Office of Special Counsel, the independent agency charged with monitoring and enforcing the law.

White House press office officials and Scavino did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump has waged an ongoing battle with leaders and members of the hard-line Freedom Caucus following the defeat of the American Health Care Act, the bill backed by Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan that aimed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

The president blamed caucus members including North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, and Amash, as well as Democrats, after the bill was pulled as a result of the lack of lawmakers’ support.

Amash responded to Scavino on Saturday afternoon, saying: “Trump admin & Establishment have merged into #Trumpstablishment. Same old agenda: Attack conservatives, libertarians & independent thinkers.”

More than an hour later, he tweeted a link to a fundraising site: “Bring it on. I’ll always stand up for liberty, the Constitution & Americans of every background. You can help here: https://causes.anedot.com/justin-amash.”

Amash, a four-term congressman, hit back at Trump this past week after the president criticized the Freedom Caucus.

Amash has been a consistent thorn in the side of establishment Republicans, who have tried to oust the 36-year-old lawmaker before, notably when Republican leaders backed businessman Brian Ellis over the incumbent in the 2014 primary. Amash bested Ellis 57 percent to 43 percent.” Politico

June 9, 2017  Washington Post

“White House social-media director Dan Scavino Jr. violated a federal law that bars public officials from using their positions for political activity when he urged President Trump’s supporters to defeat a GOP congressman, the Office of Special Counsel has concluded.As a result, Scavino was issued a warning letter and advised that additional violations of the law could result in further action, according to a June 5 letter that the office sent to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which filed a complaint about Scavino’s tweet.”

Playing the Trump Card From a teenage caddie to the top of the Trump organization, Dan Scavino tells us how he became a swinging success in the golf world By: Olivia J. Abel Hudson Valley Magazine May 2009

How a golf caddie became Trump’s campaign confidant

Donald Trump’s ‘Star of David’ tweet controversy, explained

Skip to toolbar