Ex-Trump aide John McEntee joins Heritage operation as senior adviser

The Heritage Foundation is bringing on a longtime Trump aide to advise its efforts to identify personnel and lay the foundation for the next Republican presidency, the conservative group announced Tuesday.

John McEntee, who served as then-President Trump’s personal assistant before leading the White House Presidential Personnel Office, is joining the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, an initiative to “pave the way for an effective conservative administration,” as a senior adviser.

“I’m tremendously excited to join Project 2025, the flagship transition effort to take back our country,” McEntee said in a statement. “The Presidential Personnel Database will be of extraordinary value for the 47th president because we are doing a lot of the incoming administration’s most important work ahead of time.”

Heritage said McEntee will facilitate outreach to presidential candidates and promote the group’s database to prospective personnel applicants.

RealClearPolitics first reported that McEntee was joining the effort.

McEntee worked on Trump’s campaign and later joined the White House before his firing in March 2018 for undisclosed security reasons. He later returned to lead the personnel office in 2020, where he reportedly sought out loyalists to serve in the administration.

He will join two other former Trump officials on the Heritage effort: Spencer Chretien, a former associate director of presidential personnel under Trump who is the associate director of Project 2025, and James Bacon, a former Trump aide who RealClearPolitics reported will also serve as an adviser to the initiative.

The Heritage Foundation initiative comes as the Republican field for the 2024 campaign takes shape. Trump and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley are already in the race, while Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) are among those expected to announce their candidacy in the coming weeks.

Project 2025 is an effort to identify potential staff and formulate potential policy recommendations for a future Republican administration.

Updated at 5 p.m.