John McEntee (political aide)

McEntee was raised as a Catholic and attended St. Angela Merici Parish School in Brea, California. He played high school football at Servite High School in Anaheim. As a senior, he threw for 1,525 yards with seven TD passes and rushed for four touchdowns.[13]

After being redshirted his first year at the University of Connecticut, McEntee saw limited playing time in his first two full seasons of play. In 2011, he won the team's starting job and played all 12 games in 2011, leading the team to a 5–7 season. As the team's quarterback, McEntee passed for over 150 yards in seven games, passed for over 200 in four games, and reached a season and career-high of 300 yards against Western Michigan University, where he also had a career high of four touchdown passes and 22 completions.[14] His 335 pass attempts was eighth in school single-season history and his 172 completions was tenth.[15]

In 2011, McEntee starred in a viral YouTube video that featured him throwing football trickshots. The video was later featured on CNN.[16] Within 48 hours of posting, the video had generated nearly 7 million views and was featured on the homepage of Yahoo.[17] After completing his communications degree in the spring, McEntee lost the starting job and played sparingly in three games in his senior season of 2012.[15][18][19]

By 2015, McEntee had taken on a role as a production assistant for Fox News, focusing on the channel's social media accounts.[19] He successfully lobbied for a job on the Trump campaign, joining as a volunteer in July of that year, later being promoted to a full-time position as trip director.[20] McEntee was responsible for executing the campaign's rallies while traveling with the candidate and coordinating the campaign's travel for all staff.

After Trump won the 2016 election, McEntee was asked to join his staff as an aide, serving as his body man.[1] He was named as one of conservative publication Newsmax's "30 Most Influential Republicans Under 30" in January 2018.[21] McEntee's service in the White House ended on March 13, 2018 when he was fired due to an "unspecified security issue" that was later revealed to be a problem with gambling debts and an inability to obtain a necessary security clearance.[5][10] McEntee was immediately hired by Trump's 2020 reelection campaign as a senior adviser for campaign operations. In January 2020, McEntee returned to the White House where he shared some of his former "body man" duties with Nick Luna, the Director of Oval Office Operations.[4] McEntee's role was as the director of the Office of Presidential Personnel,[7] reporting directly to the president. He was tasked with identifying and removing political appointees and career officials deemed insufficiently loyal to the administration.[4][10][11][12][22] His reappointment was controversial given the circumstances of his dismissal.[6][8][9][23]

McEntee was raised in a Roman Catholic family in Fullerton, California.[19] His father is John D. McEntee, a producer/manager who books celebrities for private and corporate functions, as well as for resorts including the MGM Resorts, Caesars Palace, and Venetian Properties.[24] His cousin, Zac McEntee, played tennis at the University of Connecticut,[25] and was the deputy chief of staff[26] for Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.[19]