One of President Donald Trump’s longtime advisers, Dan Scavino, is going to be in charge of selecting and appointing key positions within the executive branch, Trump said in an announcement early on Oct. 12.
“I am pleased to announce that the great Dan Scavino, in addition to remaining Deputy Chief of Staff of the Trump Administration, will head the White House Presidential Personnel Office, replacing Sergio Gor, who did a wonderful job in that position, and will now become the Ambassador to India,” Trump said in a post to TruthSocial.
“Dan will be responsible for the selection and appointment of almost all positions in government, a very big and important position.”
Scavino has been serving as deputy chief of staff in Trump’s second term but also worked on his previous presidential campaigns. During Trump’s first term, Scavino was a senior adviser for digital strategy and the White House director of social media.
Following the 2020 presidential election, Scavino assisted Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
The House of Representatives previously voted to hold Scavino in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021. The Justice Department declined to prosecute him, prompting criticism from members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
According to the White House’s website, the Office of Presidential Personnel “oversees the selection process for presidential appointments and works to recruit candidates to serve the President in departments and agencies throughout the Executive Branch.”
Part of the office’s role is to review job candidates for key positions and present them to the Senate for confirmation.
The Senate has struggled in recent months to approve Trump’s nominees for various positions. In October, however, Senate Republicans were able to confirm more than 100 of Trump’s nominees, including U.S. attorneys and key positions for Cabinet departments.
Recently, Congress has failed to pass a spending bill to reopen the government.
In a court filing on Oct. 10, the administration said it began issuing “reduction in force” notices to more than 4,000 employees across multiple departments. The Departments of Health and Human Services (1,100–1,200), Treasury (1,446), and Education (466) have the highest approximate numbers of employees who were receiving notices.
In a TruthSocial post on Oct. 11, Trump criticized Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democrats, accusing them of holding the government hostage. He also said that he was directing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to use certain funds to pay troops on Oct. 15.
Schumer has come under scrutiny for telling Punchbowl News that “every day gets better for us.”
The Democratic leader has blamed Republicans for the losses caused by the shutdown.
T.J. Muscaro and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
