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White House social media director Dan Scavino is President Donald Trump's longest-serving aide, and the mastermind behind much of Trump's social media strategy.
His relationship with Trump runs all the way back to 1990, when a 16-year-old Scavino was hand-picked to be Trump's caddie.
Now, according to a recent report in Politico, Scavino is an "indispensable" member of Trump's team, and one of the staffers who spends the most time with Trump and serves as a sounding board for his social media strategy and even policy issues.
Here's how Scavino went from cleaning clubs to managing Trump's social media.
There's only one White House staffer who's not family that's been in President Donald Trump's orbit since the early days of the campaign: social media director Dan Scavino.
When former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks' departed the administration in March of 2018, Scavino became Trump's longest-serving aide. But he has been by Trump's side since way before his 2016 campaign began.
His relationship with Trump runs all the way back to 1990, when a 16-year-old Scavino was hand-picked to be Trump's caddie. Since that chance selection, Scavino has rocketed high into the ranks of Trump's communications team, and today is part of a small group of people in charge of the White House's messaging.
Now, according to a recent report in Politico, Scavino is an "indispensable" member of Trump's team, and one of the staffers who spends the most time with Trump and serves as a sounding board for his social media strategy and even policy issues.
Here's how Scavino went from cleaning clubs to managing Trump's social media:
Scavino's family hails from northern Italy. His great-grandfather entered the US through Ellis Island in the early 1900s and soon settled in New York City.
After Trump began criticizing what he called "chain migration," many pointed out that Scavino's family itself had came to the US through this process. After his ancestor Vittorio came to New York in 1904, other members of his family followed over the next few years.
Scavino was born in 1976 and grew up in the New York City metropolitan area.
Dan Scavino.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
When he was 16 years old, Scavino was working a summer job cleaning golf clubs at New York's Briar Hall Country Club in the lower Hudson Valley when the country club got an unexpected visitor.
It was 1990. Briar's Hall was headed for foreclosure, and Trump was interested in expanding his golf empire. When the future president dropped by, Scavino was in the right place at the right time, and was chosen to be his golf caddie for the day.
"I'll never forget the day his limo first pulled up," Scavino said years later. "I was star-struck. I remember his first gratuity. It was two bills ― two hundred-dollar bills. I said, 'I am never spending this money.' I still have both bills."
Scavino went on to graduate from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in 1997, and then worked several jobs in his 20s, including on in the sales department of a Coca-Cola bottler. But his encounter with Trump in 1990 soon bore fruit for him.
In 2004, Trump hired Scavino to be the assistant manager of the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester where they had first met, and he became the executive vice president of the club in 2008.
A view of the clubhouse at the Trump National Golf Club Westchester, where Trump held a campaign event on June 7, 2016.
REUTERS/Mike Segar
When Trump was musing a serious presidential run, Scavino told him he would "drop everything" to work with him on the campaign. In July 2015, Trump asked him to join.
In February 2016, Trump chose Scavino to head his social media campaign, which had been growing in size and scope. But while he headed up the effort as a whole, he let Trump be Trump on Twitter.
Scavino traveled with Trump for months, and sometimes took dictation from him for his tweets.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump boards his plane as Scavino takes his photo from the top of the stairs following a campaign rally in Tampa.
Thomson Reuters
But the campaign was not without controversy — not only did Trump's unfiltered messaging make waves, but the campaign came under fire for several allegedly offensive tweets.
On one occasion, Trump tweeted a picture of then-2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton with the text "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!" inside of a six-point star. The symbol was seen as anti-Semitic, and the campaign eventually changed the graphic.
The original image, which Scavino chose.
Screenshot via Twitter
While Trump writes most of his own tweets, Scavino directs the overall tone of Trump's feed, often taking other staffers' suggestions for tweets adapting them to "Trump it up," — or channel Trump's exact thoughts and feelings, according to Politico.
Scavino is also the mastermind behind the "Game of Thrones" themed series of tweets Trump put out to announce sanctions on Iran and to proclaim his innocence after the release of the Mueller report.
Scavino has become a vital part of Trump's administration, and even followed him to places like the Vatican to meet Pope Francis in 2017.
Scavino, left, and former White House communications director Hope Hicks arrive to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican on May 24, 2017.
Jonathan Ernst/Pool Photo via AP
But Scavino couldn't stay out of trouble for long. He violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits executive branch officials from being involved in electoral activity, when he sent a tweet urging the defeat of Rep. Justin Amash. He was warned that an other violation "could result in further action."
In September 2017, he tried to warn people in Florida about Hurricane Irma, but accidentally tweeted video of wrong storm. The Miami International Airport replied to his tweet noting the error.
Recently planted palm trees lie strewn across the road as Hurricane Irma passes by on Sept. 10, 2017 in Miami Beach, Fla.
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
In January, Scavino's personal life took a hit when he and his wife Jennifer filed for divorce. They had been married for 18 years and have two children.
But despite his troubles, it looks like Scavino's stint as Trump's right-hand man on social media won't end anytime soon.
Donald Trump
Leah Millis/Reuters
While Scavino was one of several aides who was rumored to be leaving the White House in 2018, Trump told Politico this month he hoped Scavino "would stay for another six years and maybe another four after that and then another four after that."
Former personal aide to the president John McEntee (L), Scavino, and Senior Advisor to the President Stephen Miller leave the White House with Trump on November 29, 2017.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
According to a recent report in Politico, Scavino is not only the brains behind Trump's Twitter feed, but one of Trump's most trusted advisers on policy and personnel issues, too.
Trump and Dan Scavino
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
After the departure of Trump's last communications director Bill Shine, Trump has reportedly decided that as long as he has Scavino, he won't need a replacement communications chief.
Bill Shine, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Dan Scavino
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Scavino also plays a role reassuring Trump that he and his policies are popular. At one point, Trump reportedly called Scavino into a meeting with lawmakers to affirm Trump's idea to pull US troops out of Syria was being positively received on Twitter.
Scavino and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Scavino attributes social media as one of Trump's greatest strengths. "He is in the White House today because of social media," Scavino told Fox News. "It's what won him the White House, and he's just gonna keep tweeting away."
Hicks and Scavino have been two of Trump's most trusted confidantes. With her out of the White House, Scavino is now the only aide who's been with Trump since the beginning.
Hicks and Scavino walk to their motorcade vehicle after Trump's visit to Jones Day's D.C. law offices in Washington on May 12, 2016.
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Scavino has managed to survive for so long in the Trump orbit not only because of his loyalty to Trump, but because he's learned to keep to himself and stay out of the internal White House turmoil.
White House Director of Social Media Dan Scavino
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
