This is an adapted excerpt from the July 10 episode of “All In with Chris Hayes.”
Donald Trump really wants you to believe he has nothing to do with Project 2025, the 900-page wish list of far-right proposals ready to go should he win the presidency in November. He even went so far as to claim, “I have no idea who is behind it.”
Well, someone who is behind Project 2025 is John McEntee. He was frequently seen in photos with Trump holding the former president’s bag. McEntee used to be Trump’s bodyman — basically a personal assistant — during the early years of his administration … and it didn’t end well.
Former chief of staff John Kelly effectively had him tossed off the White House premises.
In 2018, McEntee was abruptly forced out of his post and escorted off the White House grounds amid an investigation by the Secret Service for serious financial crimes. According to The Wall Street Journal, McEntee was a habitual gambler, betting tens of thousands of dollars at a time, and was deemed a security risk as a result. The chief of staff at the time, John Kelly, effectively had him tossed off the White House premises. We should note, McEntee was never charged with a crime.
Despite it all, McEntee remained loyal to Trump. The former college football player and Fox News production assistant was such a strong believer in Trump’s message that, back in 2015, he repeatedly cold-emailed the Trump campaign, begging for a job. The campaign eventually brought him on as a volunteer and then as a paid staffer. McEntee was so committed to the cause he worked out of a space in Trump Tower with just three walls and an unfinished floor.
His loyalty to the boss paid off. After Trump fired Kelly he brought McEntee back, this time as the director of the Presidential Personnel Office — the guy who decided who got to work for the president. In that role, McEntee worked to purge staffers deemed insufficiently loyal, all while ensuring only the most rabid Trump toadies got jobs in the White House. He was also deeply involved in Trump’s attempted coup, including efforts to pressure Mike Pence to reject the results of the 2020 election. Journalist Jon Karl called him “The Man Who Made Jan. 6th Possible.” After the coup failed, McEntee spun his notoriety into a career as something of a conservative influencer: selling a MAGA dating app and posting deranged videos on social media. Including one in which he bragged about giving homeless people fake money. McEntee later claimed the video was a joke. That sounds like a pretty gross and weird joke to me. That means the grifting, gambling Jan. 6 henchman — who was too much of a security issue for the Trump administration — is going to be the guy vetting resumes the second time around. So why are we talking about John McEntee? Well, he’s now a senior adviser to Project 2025, specifically, its “Presidential Personnel Database.” It’s Project 2025’s plan to staff the White House if Trump wins in November. That means the grifting, gambling Jan. 6 henchman — who was too much of a security issue for the Trump administration — is going to be the guy vetting resumes the second time around. Is that someone you want in charge of the most important personnel office in the country?
Chris Hayes hosts “All In with Chris Hayes” at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday through Friday on MS NOW. He is the editor-at-large at The Nation. A former fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, Hayes was a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation. His latest book is “The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource” (Penguin Press).
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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