John Hogan Gidley is an American political aide who served as

White House Deputy Press Secretary The White House Office of the Press Secretary, or the Press Office, is responsible for gathering and disseminating information to three principal groups: the President, the White House staff, and the media. The Office is headed by the White House ...

from 2019 to 2020 in the

Donald Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the 45th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican from New York City, took office following his Electoral College victory o ...

. In July 2020, Gidley became the press secretary of President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

's reelection campaign.

Early life and career

Gidley was born in El Dorado, Arkansas. He graduated from the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi ( byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment ...

with a degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in political science in 1998. In college, Gidley was a member of the

Young Republicans The Young Republican National Federation, commonly referred to as the Young Republicans or YRNF, is a 527 organization for members of the Republican Party of the United States between the ages of 18 and 40. It has both a national organization ...

and of the

Sigma Chi Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more t ...

fraternity.

Career

Gidley served as the director of

Huck PAC Huck PAC is the political action committee of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. It was founded in April 2008 by Huckabee, during the 2008 United States Republican presidential primaries. Its mission statement was, "Huck PAC is committed to ...

. His past activities include director of media operations for

Arkansas Governor The governor of Arkansas is the head of government of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The governor is the head of the executive branch of the Arkansas government and is charged with enforcing state laws. They have the power to either approve or v ...

Mike Huckabee, Executive Director of the

South Carolina Republican Party The South Carolina Republican Party (SCGOP) is the state affiliate of the national Republican Party in South Carolina. It is one of two major political parties in the state, along with the South Carolina Democratic Party, and is the dominant pa ...

, Press Secretary to the

David Beasley David Muldrow Beasley (born February 26, 1957) is an American politician and the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme. A member of the Republican Party, he served one term as the 113th Governor of South Carolina from 199 ...

for Senate campaign, the Karen Floyd for Superintendent of Education campaign, and U.S. Senator

Elizabeth Dole Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford Dole (née Hanford; born July 29, 1936)Mary Ella Cathey Hanford, "Asbury and Hanford Families: Newly Discovered Genealogical Information" ''The Historical Trail'' 33 (1996), pp. 44–45, 49. is an American attorn ...

's campaign committee. He was director of communications for

Rick Santorum Richard John Santorum ( ; born May 10, 1958) is an American politician, attorney, and political commentator. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007 and was the Senate's third ...

's 2012 presidential campaign.

Trump administration

The Trump administration announced on October 10, 2017, that Gidley would serve as Deputy Press Secretary, and he started his job at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

the next day. In February 2018, Gidley said that Trump was speaking "tongue-in-cheek" when he said it was "treasonous" for Democrats not to applaud him during the State of the Union address. Later that February, after Special Counsel Mueller's investigation led to the indictments of a number of Russians for election interference, Gidley said that Democrats and the media had done more to create "chaos" in the United States than the Russian government. In January 2019, Gidley was promoted to deputy press secretary, succeeding Raj Shah. In June 2019, he was considered a candidate for White House Press Secretary when

Sarah Sanders Sarah Elizabeth Huckabee Sanders (born August 13, 1982) is an American former political spokesperson and the governor-elect of Arkansas. She was the 31st White House press secretary, serving under President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2019. She ...

announced she was stepping down from the role. Stephanie Grisham was named to the position, with Gidley continuing as deputy press secretary. On September 5, 2019, Gidley and Grisham published an opinion piece in ''

The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughou ...

,'' "The ''Washington Post's'' lost summer". They asserted the ''Post'' had not reported on several Trump accomplishments, although the paper actually had reported on them. The piece linked to a ''Post'' story titled "Trump becomes first sitting president to set foot into North Korea" as the authors asserted the paper had not reported that event. In June 2020, Gidley resigned as deputy press secretary to serve as the national press secretary of the Trump reelection campaign. He was succeeded as deputy press secretary by Brian R. Morgenstern, a former official in the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...

. In January 2021, after being asked by Fox's

Bill Hemmer William G. Hemmer (born November 14, 1964) is an American journalist, currently the co-anchor of ''America's Newsroom'' on the Fox News Channel, based in New York City. Early life and education On November 14, 1964, Hemmer was born in Cincin ...

whether Donald Trump had been emasculated by his removal from social media, Gidley called Trump "the most masculine person to ever hold the White House."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gidley, Hogan Living people University of Mississippi alumni Public relations people South Carolina Republicans Trump administration personnel People from El Dorado, Arkansas 1976 births