A longtime personal aide to Donald Trump was abruptly fired and escorted from the White House Monday afternoon, only to be hired immediately by Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, according to multiple media reports and a campaign statement.

Aide John McEntee, whose slight public profile belies his relatively long service with Trump going back to the early days of the original campaign, told colleagues that he had had trouble gaining necessary security clearances, according to the Wall Street Journal, which broke the news.

It was not clear why a clearance issue would have warranted the abrupt removal of McEntee from the White House grounds. Neither the White House nor the Trump campaign replied to a request for comment.

No sooner had the announcement been made than a video was posted on Twitter of McEntee performing incredible trick shots with a football when he was the quarterback at the University of Connecticut. McEntee was a well-known player and the video has been viewed seven million times on YouTube, according to the Hartford Courant.

McEntee formerly worked as a production assistant at Fox News, according to financial disclosure records.

A White House spokesperson said “we do not comment on personnel matters.” A CNN report that McEntee was under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could not be confirmed. Neither DHS nor the Secret Service would comment.





Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, reportedly had his security clearance status downgraded last month, for as-yet-unspecified reasons, but he remains on the job.

McEntee attended to details of Trump’s daily life, such as supplying him with markers for autograph-signing and turning the clocks ahead with the advent of daylight savings time, the Journal reported.

Other departures from the administration this week so far include Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and under secretary of public affairs Steve Goldstein. Last week, national economic council director Gary Cohn stepped down, and last month saw the departures of former communications director Hope Hicks, former communications aide Josh Raffel and staff secretary Rob Porter.

Porter resigned after a difficulty with security clearances, relating to allegations of domestic abuse, which the White House admitted mishandling.