He has a digital strategy director - you'd never know it

The president turns to his digital strategy director for validation of his policies on everything from immigration to troop levels in Syria.

Shortly after President Donald Trump announced plans to yank U.S. troops out of Syria last December, a group of lawmakers came to the White House to talk him out of the idea, which critics called a threat to national security.

Trump responded by calling in the man who oversees his Twitter account.

“Get Dan Scavino in here,” Trump called out in the middle of the meeting earlier this year.

[...]

“Tell them how popular my policy is,” Trump instructed Scavino, who, according to two people with knowledge of the exchange, proceeded to walk lawmakers through the positive reaction he had picked up on social media about Trump’s Syria decision.

[...]

It was a remarkable moment given that not long ago Scavino was managing Trump’s golf club.

  Politico

Christ.

With few allies left in the West Wing, Trump frequently leans on his unassuming social media guru for affirmation and advice about how his most sensitive policies will be received.

Let me guess: Politico is FAKE NEWS!

Scavino met Trump as a 16-year-old golf caddie and has spent much of his adult life by his side. Today, he sits just feet from the Oval Office and is present at most meetings, tapping away on his laptop in the background. He has joined Trump on trips to Saudi Arabia, Argentina and other far-flung destinations.

And officials say he talks to the president more than just about anybody else aside from Trump’s own family members, ping-ponging in and out of the Oval, sometimes more than a half-dozen times a day. Aides wanting a read on Trump’s mood often check in with Scavino, who can be counted on to know.

[...]

As he did in the meeting about Syria, Scavino routinely provides rationalizations or justifications for the president’s most controversial policy directives, from his attacks on NFL players to his hard line on immigration — moves that Scavino has told the president thrill the #MAGA warriors on Twitter.

Trump's butt boy.

As Trump embarks on his reelection campaign, Scavino is the last of four completely trusted original insiders currently still at his side. Gone are his former bodyguard and sidekick Keith Schiller; communications director Hope Hicks; and body man John McEntee.

But most important is his role as caretaker of Trump’s explosive Twitter feed, which both rallies the president’s supporters and drives Washington’s daily news cycles.

[...]

The president has cycled through five communications directors since taking office, including the recently departed former Fox News executive Bill Shine, and has finally concluded he doesn’t need one, according to associates. He has himself — and Scavino.

So does Scavino have some responsibility for that poor quality, poor taste Air Force 1 video?

“Oftentimes, I’ll go through Dan,” Trump said. “You know, I’ll talk it over. And he can really be a very good sounding board. A lot of common sense. He’s got a good grasp.”

Not good enough.

“When I was running, I knew that Hillary had 28 people — and I had Dan. ... They used to say that we ran an unsophisticated campaign. And after we won, they said we ran one of the most sophisticated campaigns ever,” Trump said.

Yes, he's talking about those voices in his head.

Some who have witnessed Scavino’s interactions with the president up close say he is constantly reassuring Trump and regaling him with data points about how beloved he is.

[...]

“It’s this overt gushing to the president,” a former White House official said, adding that he recalls thinking, “Is Dan serious? Does he really feel that way?”

Yet it’s Scavino’s validation of the president that gives him influence. During his frequent visits to the Oval Office, conversations with the president on Air Force One or pull-asides in the president’s private study, Trump asks Scavino for feedback on a range of subjects, pressing him about how his tweets are playing, whether his policies are popular and what he thinks about potential administration hires, aides said.

[...]

Exactly how Trump’s tweets get made is a closely held secret inside the White House. But White House officials and even the president himself acknowledge that Scavino’s fingerprints can be found all over Trump’s feed.

Asked directly whether Scavino helps write his tweets, Trump said, “Generally, I’ll do my tweets myself,” but he allowed that his aide helps shape his missives “on occasion.”

[...]

It was Scavino who devised the “Game of Thrones”-themed motif that has repeatedly appeared in White House messaging in recent months, including a presidential tweet aimed at Iran last fall that featured an image of Trump with the words “Sanctions are Coming.”

Dear God. So, I'm guessing Scavino really is a believer. He's obviously still a teenage caddie.

He also worked with Trump to preplan one of the president’s first public responses to the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, according to two administration officials. The April 18 tweet, timed to post minutes after Attorney General William Barr wrapped up his news conference about the report, declared: “No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats — Game Over.”

That tweet also borrowed its font from the hit HBO series — never mind that the network objected in a statement last November that it “would prefer our trademark not be misappropriated for political purposes.”

[...]

“He has a knack for phrasing things in a way that can drive news cycles,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “Corporations pay people millions of dollars to break through on social media like that.”

The other imbecile in the room.

The White House has created a separate review process for tweets that don’t originate from Trump or Scavino. Staffers propose a tweet, circulate it for feedback and then send it to Scavino, who sometimes “Trumps it up” before getting the president’s approval, according to a former White House official. Scavino has spent so much time around the president that he is an expert mimic of Trump’s speech patterns and predilections.

“He does a better a job at channeling Trump than anyone,” another former White House official said. (Sometimes, tweets deemed too hot even for Trump’s feed are posted on Scavino’s personal account.)

No, I'm not willing to monitor his Twitter shit, too.

Scavino’s own Twitter account, which has more than 368,000 followers, has become a home for the many behind-the-scenes videos and photos that Scavino takes on his travels alongside Trump, which often give him a better vantage point than journalists.

Don't care. Still not going there. Monitoring His Lardship's Twitter is nauseating enough.

“He’s somebody who the president knows has no personal motivation. He’s not doing this for himself,” said Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser.

That's how he's still there.  Actually, staying there IS his personal motivation.

His personal Twitter feed also displays a combative, populist sensibility virtually indistinguishable from Trump’s. When the president was feuding with MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski in 2017, Scavino tweeted, “#DumbAsARockMika and lover #JealousJoe are lost, confused & saddened since @POTUS @realDonaldTrump stopped returning their calls! Unhinged.”

God. Trump's lickspittle.

At the start of Trump’s presidency, White House officials took much greater pains to contain his rapid-fire tweeting. Scavino would present Trump with several draft tweets to choose from every morning that would allow Trump "a release valve," according to a person close to the president. The president circled the tweets he liked, and Scavino would send out the ones that he picked.

That setup didn’t last long, this person said. Trump "wasn’t feeling the actual euphoria of typing the tweet himself and … then within 15 seconds seeing it blasted on one of the cable shows.”

[...]

In his interview with POLITICO, Trump dismissed persistent rumors that Scavino might leave the White House.

“I would hope he’ll stay for another six years and maybe another four after that and then another four after that,” Trump said, adding that he only jokes about extending his term to drive the media crazy.

Mmm-hmmm. Sure.

Aides say Trump regularly complains about losing followers in what he suspects is politically motivated censorship of conservatives — but which Twitter attributes to a recent crackdown on spam accounts.

Trump confronted Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey about the matter in an Oval Office meeting last month. Seated beside Dorsey was Dan Scavino.

[...]

Trump often asks Scavino to tell visitors how many followers he has on social media — insisting that his aide tally followers across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms, instead of just Twitter, where former President Barack Obama dwarfs Trump’s follower count of 60 million by more than 45 million.

“How many people do I have?” Trump asked Scavino during the Syria meeting earlier this year with lawmakers, referring to his follower count.

Jesus wept.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.