McEntee played a significant role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election in the lead-up to theJanuary 6 Capitol attack, and promoted numerous conspiracy theories about the election. His role in the last year of Trump’s presidency earned him the moniker, “Deputy President”.[3]
McEntee is an activeconservative social media influencer with over 3.3 million followers onTikTok.[11] He is also the co-founder ofThe Right Stuff, a dating app for Republican singles.
McEntee was born on May 9, 1990, inFullerton, California, to aCatholic family.[12] His father is John D. McEntee Sr., a producer and manager who books celebrities for private and corporate functions, as well as for resorts including theMGM Resorts,Caesars Palace, andVenetian Properties.[13] He first attended St. Angela Merici Parish School inBrea, California, and then attendedServite High School inAnaheim, where he played quarterback on the varsity football team.[14]
McEntee was aredshirt his first year at theUniversity of Connecticut, and completed his sociology degree in the spring of his senior year.[15] He playedcollege football for theHuskies, but was used sparingly in his first two seasons.[16] McEntee was named the starting quarterback during the2011 season, after a strong performance againstBuffalo.[17] In the next game againstWestern Michigan, he recorded his season and career-high, after throwing for 300 yards and four touchdowns.[18] McEntee lost the starting job totransferChandler Whitmer in the2012 season, and dropped down the depth chart to third-string, making just three appearances for the Huskies.[19]
In 2015, McEntee worked as a production assistant forFox News, focusing on the channel'ssocial media accounts.[12] He successfully lobbied for a job on theTrump campaign, joining as a volunteer in July of that year and later being promoted to a full-time position as trip director.[20]
AfterDonald Trump won the2016 election, McEntee was asked to join his staff as an aide, serving as hisbody man.[5] McEntee accompanied Trump on all trips, most notably the President's trip toSaudi Arabia in May 2017, where "Man in red tie" (McEntee) and "#Trump's_daughter" (Ivanka Trump) briefly became the most trending hashtags in that country.[21]
McEntee's first term of service in theWhite House ended on March 13, 2018, after Chief of Staff John Kelly ousted him on the pretext of an “unspecified security issue” that was later revealed to be unreported gambling winnings.[3][22][23]
2020 United States presidential election and attempts to overturn it
After his dismissal from the White House, McEntee was hired by Trump's2020 reelection campaign as a senior adviser for campaign operations. In January 2020, McEntee returned to the White House in his old position of bodyman, where he shared some of his former duties with Nick Luna, the Director ofOval Office Operations.[24] Shortly after his return, McEntee was then promoted to Director of theWhite House Presidential Personnel Office,[8] overseeing the President's 4,000 appointments to the federal bureaucracy. McEntee reported directly to the President and continued to hold his role as Trump's bodyman concurrently. He was tasked with identifying and removing political appointees and career officials deemed insufficiently loyal to the administration, despite having no previous personnel or people management experience.[23][25][26][27] McEntee then installed officials who were ideologically in line with the Trump campaign themes of non-interventionist foreign policy, immigration restriction, and economic nationalism.[27] His reappointment was controversial given the circumstances of his dismissal.[28] McEntee's purge of the Trump administration was lauded by many Trump loyalists who have long urged President Trump to terminate those in his administration who were part of the Washington establishment.
McEntee also engineered a purge ofneoconservatives from the senior ranks of thePentagon, appointed the officials who led the effort to crack down on social media companies for censoring conservatives, and got rid of theAffirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation.[29][30]
Leading up to thecertification of the 2020 election, McEntee falsely claimed Mike Pence had the authority to overturn the results. McEntee sent a series of bullet points via text message toPence's chief of staff to assert thatThomas Jefferson "Used His Position as VP to Win" the 1801 election.[3] In a piece about McEntee, ABC News correspondentJonathan Karl characterized the analysis as "absurd" because "Jefferson didn't discard electoral votes, as Trump wanted Pence to do. He accepted electoral votes from a state that nobody had questioned he had won."[3]
On November 9, 2021, McEntee was issued a subpoena to testify by the HouseJanuary 6th Committee.[31] On two occasions in 2022, he appeared before the committee in a taped deposition,[32][33] returning in person in January 2023.[34]
In November 2023, Karl wrote that in the closing weeks of the Trump presidency, McEntee worked withDouglas Macgregor, who was about to assume the role of Senior Advisor to Acting Secretary of DefenseChristopher Miller, to draft a brief document ordering the swift withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Germany, and Africa.[3] The president signed the memo, and it was forwarded toKash Patel at the Pentagon without any review by the legal, military or national security apparatus, nor was it recorded by Derek Lyons, the White House staff secretary responsible for filing and transmitting official presidential orders. After Miller and Joint Chiefs chairmanMark Milley went to the White House to inquire about the order, it was rescinded except for the withdrawal from Somalia, which did occur.[35]
After leaving the White House in 2021, McEntee met with billionairePeter Thiel to pitch him several tech startup ideas, one of which was the idea for a conservative dating app calledThe Right Stuff. Thiel agreed to fund the app and subsequently made a seed round investment of $1.5 million. The app launched on September 30, 2022.[36][37] The Right Stuff’s official launch was announced exclusively onTucker Carlson Tonight, where McEntee appeared as a guest.[38]
Rather than pursue conventional marketing techniques, McEntee utilized a unique new strategy in which he promoted the app in part through videos staged to appear as though the viewer was on a date with McEntee, where he shared controversial and provocative opinions on a variety of topics.[39][40] The style of these videos remains a notable feature of McEntee's online presence, particularly onTikTok, where his account has amassed over 1 billion views as of October 2024.[40][41]
In May 2023, it was announced that McEntee was joiningThe Heritage Foundation'sProject 2025 as a senior advisor.[42][43] Described byThe New York Times as "one of Trump's most trusted aides", McEntee and his association with Project 2025 serves as the main link between the Heritage Foundation and former President Trump.[44] On November 1, 2023, theTimes reported that his role includes working as "part of a team searching for potential lawyers" for Trump's next Administration.[44] McEntee has stated that as part of Project 2025, he supports a totalban onpornography.[45][46][47][48]
In 2024, multiple reports surfaced accusing McEntee of sending inappropriate and sexually explicit messages to young women, including teenagers, through social media platforms and The Right Stuff. One woman, Grace Carter, shared that McEntee reached out to her in October 2023, when she was 18 years old, offering merchandise from the app and attempting to arrange a trip for her and a friend to visit him in Los Angeles. Despite Carter expressing discomfort and declining to visit, McEntee continued to contact her.[49] Another woman reported similar advances and inappropriate sexual comments from McEntee after connecting with him through the Right Stuff app. Both women indicated that McEntee's behavior made them uncomfortable.[50]
Throughout 2023 and 2024, while United States legislation consideredrestricting TikTok, McEntee established himself as an outspoken defender of the app, calling Republicans "ridiculous" for trying to ban it. McEntee also accused Washington politicians of using TikTok and China asscapegoats.[51]
In May 2024, McEntee sparked outrage after posting a video on TikTok in which he made a joke about giving homeless peoplefake money, stating that they would be arrested when trying to use it. McEntee stated in the video, "I always keep this fake Hollywood money in my car... so when a homeless person asks for money, I give them a fake $5 bill. So I feel good about myself. They feel good. And then when they go to use it, they get arrested."[52] He went on to assert his efforts were helping "clean up the streets".
While the video included a caption stating "Just a joke. Everyone calm down," it was widely condemned. Critics described McEntee's actions as cruel and inhumane and several noted that, if McEntee had done what he had claimed, it would likely be considered a federal crime under18 US Code section 480.[53] In October 2024, McEntee sparked outrage by making a joking play on the phrase "mail-in voting", stating that only men should be allowed to vote: "Sorry we want MALE only voting. The 19th might have to go," he said, referring tothe 19th Amendment,[54] which guaranteed the right of women to vote.
^Extremism, Global Project Against Hate & (May 14, 2024)."Project 2025 May 8th Update".Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. RetrievedJuly 21, 2024.
