Temporarily Kicked Off Facebook
By Dan Murphy
Like most Westchester communities, the Town of Yorktown has mostly an equal number of democrats, republicans and independents. So it is no surprise that Yorktown High School has among its alumni new Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, but also Dan Scavino, who has served President Donald Trump in different capacities for more than 10 years, and who has served since Trump’s election as Director of Social Media in The White House.
While Ocasio-Cortez can be found prominently on the cable news talk shows and on social media, Scavino has kept a low profile.
A New York Times article from last year tried to shed some more light on this Westchester mystery man behind the president – and his thousands of Tweets.
According to the Times story, Scavino’s primary role is to “assist President Trump in operating the @realDonaldTrump account, including by drafting and posting tweets to the account. No one else, besides Trump himself, had access to the most consequential and controversial social media account in the world.”
But Scavino wears many hats in the Trump White House, with many current and former employees of the president characterizing Scavino as “the conductor of the Trump Train.”
And while many of the president’s inner circle have departed, Scavino is now the longest-serving employee in the White House.
During his years at Yorktown High School, where he played on the football and lacrosse teams, Scavino caddied at nearby Briar Hall Country Club in Briarcliff Manor. A 16-year-old Scavino carried the golf bag for Trump in 1990 and got a generous $200 tip from Trump, who told him, “You are going to work for me one day.”
Scavino went off to college and Trump purchased the club in Briarcliff and renamed it Trump National Golf Club. Scavino got a job at the club in 2004 as assistant manager and became general manager in 2008. When Trump ran for president, Scavino became an early, and eager volunteer on the campaign.
On the Trump campaign, Scavino served as a jack-of-all-trades and serving as an assistant to the president, fetching food at McDonald’s and KFC, but also typing out the many Trump tweets as dictated by the candidate.
After Trump’s election, Scavino was given the job and title of assistant to the president and director of social media, a position that had never existed before, with a salary of $179,700.
Scavino was rewarded by the President for his loyalty and ability to serve the president. Every president has had one or more Dan Scavino’s in their life, and Scavino’s willingness to take on additional responsibilities is one reason he has one of the closest spots in Trump’s inner circle.
The NY Times story by reporter Robert Draper explains Scavino’s role and ability to multitask for the president. “Scavino’s willingness to take on other people’s online grunt work made him indispensable to the campaign,” wrote Draper. “Early in the primary, the candidate’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, argued to Trump that Facebook was much more powerful than his preferred platform, Twitter. ‘Every Facebook user is probably worth 10 to 12 times more than one of your Twitter followers,’ Kushner told him. ‘And look, I think your Facebook page is totally underutilized.’ The candidate responded, ‘Congratulations, then – you’re now in charge of my Facebook.’ Kushner turned around and handed over that job to Scavino.”
Another simple reason why Scavino serves at the pleasure of the president is that he works hard and has no interest in becoming famous. “I’ve never met anyone who’s as hard-working or as loyal;” “The one guy who outworked me;” “The president has zero concern that Dan has any interest in anything but serving him;” and “You never see Dan out there hogging the limelight” are how several White House employees characterized Scavino’s work ethic.
Trump now has more than 95 million followers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, which have become the president’s number-one way to reach American people – all managed by Scavino.
Over the three years that he has served working for candidate and now President Trump, Scavino has made comments about the president. Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace named Scavino a “Power Player of the Week.”
“He’s been called the Hemingway of Twitter many times,” Scavino told Wallace about Trump. “I’ve always believed in being with the man from day one. Let Trump be Trump.” Scavino said working with Trump means the world to him and said he is like family. “He’s loyal to his family and is loyal to me,: said Scavino.
When Trump launched his presidential campaign by riding the escalators at Trump Tower, Scavino said a lot of people were laughing and viewed him as a joke. “But as the campaign went on, people stopped laughing,” he said. “He truly loves this country. He wants to keep fighting. He doesn’t need to do this. He’s putting everything on the line.”
During the campaign, Scavino introduced the president at a rally in nearby Poughkeepsie, which was one of his personal highlights.
Scavino recently made news when his personal Facebook account was temporarily shut down. The mistake was made by Facebook when it abruptly censored his account, mistaking him for a “bot.” The notice from Facebook read: “You’re temporarily blocked from making public comments on Facebook.” It cited “spam” but gave no examples.
This drew the outrage of Scavino and the president. “Amazing. Why are you stopping me from replying to comments followers have left me – on my own Facebook page!!??” he wrote. “People have the right to know. Why are you silencing me??? Please LMK! Thanks.”
Trump then tweeted that he would be “looking into this,” with the hashtag “#StopTheBias.”
Facebook said in a statement that it has a policy to “cap the amount of identical, repetitive activity coming from one account in a short period of time, such as @mentioning people” as a way to fight automated bots. The company said that is what accidentally happened to Scavino and apologized.
“These limits can have the unintended consequence of temporarily preventing real people like Dan Scavino from engaging in such activity, but lift in an hour or two, which is what happened in this case,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. “We’ve been in touch with him and have apologized for the inconvenience.”
Even after the apology, Trump tweeted: “Facebook, Google and Twitter, not to mention the Corrupt Media, are sooo on the side of the Radical Left Democrats. But fear not, we will win anyway, just like we did before! #MAGA.”
Scavino’s social media bond with the president started back in 2013, when he posted his own contribution to a trending hashtag, #MentionSomeoneYoureThankfulFor. “Simple!” he wrote. “I would not be where I am today w/o him. Thank you @realDonaldTrump!!”
Congratulations to Westchester native Dan Scavino for his hard work and loyalty to an American president. And whether you voted for or against the president, the work ethic and willingness to do whatever is asked should be a lesson to young Westchester college students and graduates entering the workforce
