President-elect Donald Trump announced that SUNY Plattsburgh alumnus Dan Scavino will return to the White House to serve as assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff in a press release Wednesday. Trump will be inaugurated Jan. 20, 2025.
Scavino ’98 was Trump’s director of social media from 2017 to 2021 and deputy chief of staff for communications from 2020 to 2021. He was also a senior advisor to Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The announcement said that Stephen Miller, James Blair and Taylor Budowich will join Scavino on the White House senior staff.
“I know they will honorably serve the American people in the White House. They will continue to work hard to Make America Great Again in their respective new roles,” the release quotes Trump.
The release mentions that Scavino is one of Trump’s “longest serving” and “most trusted” advisers.
While working a high school job, Scavino was selected to be Trump’s golf caddie at the Briar Hall Country Club in Briarcliff Manor, New York, which Trump later purchased in 1996.
Scavino studied communications at SUNY Plattsburgh and was selected for the Communications Department Advisory Board by professor emeritus Peter Ensel.
Scavino’s former adviser, Shakuntala Rao, told the Press-Republican in 2016 that he was one of the “best students” in the department and was “focused, ambitious and had excellent work ethics.”
Scavino worked for Coca-Cola and Swiss pharmaceutical company Galderma after graduation.
In 2004, Trump hired Scavino as assistant manager of the renamed Trump National Golf Club Westchester, where they originally met. Scavino eventually earned the rank of general manager and executive vice president.
Scavino joined the initial Trump presidential campaign in 2015, where he helped the businessman become the first commander-in-chief with no formal political background.
The Plattsburgh graduate is Trump’s longest-serving aide, and a 2019 Politico report called Scavino “indispensable” to Trump.