Sam Clovis and Donald Trump
Clovis Joined Trump Campaign August 2015
August 2015: Clovis Joined Trump Campaign. According to Politico, “Clovis first bet on Rick Perry in Iowa, but he bailed when the former Texas governor sputtered. The Iowan joined the Trump campaign as co-chair and policy adviser in August 2015, two short months after Trump announced his run — back when many in Washington dismissed his candidacy as a joke.” [Politico, 7/30/17]
Clovis “Served As One Of Trump’s First Campaign Policy Advisers.” According to the Washington Post, “A former economics professor at Morningside College in Iowa, Clovis made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 2014. He served as one of Trump’s first campaign policy advisers. In a 2014 interview with Iowa Public Radio, he said he was “extremely skeptical” about climate change. Clovis took a leave of absence from his position at Morningside College in 2015 to join the Trump campaign as a chief policy adviser. He helped develop Trump’s campaign proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States, drawing opposition from some university administrators, a university spokesman told the outlet Iowa Starting Line.” [Washington Post, 10/31/17]
Clovis Served Trump Campaign As Co-Chair, Sr. Policy Adviser
Clovis Served Trump Campaign As National Co-Chair, And Chief Policy Adviser. According to NBC News, “Toensing confirmed that Clovis was the campaign supervisor in the emails. Clovis, a former Air Force officer and Pentagon official who unsuccessfully ran for Iowa State Treasurer in 2014, was the Trump campaign’s chief policy adviser and national co-chairman.” [NBC News, 10/31/17]
Clovis helped Trump Develop Muslim Ban
Clovis “Helped Develop Trump’s Campaign Proposal To Ban Muslims From Entering The United States.” According to the Washington Post, “A former economics professor at Morningside College in Iowa, Clovis made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 2014. He served as one of Trump’s first campaign policy advisers. In a 2014 interview with Iowa Public Radio, he said he was “extremely skeptical” about climate change. Clovis took a leave of absence from his position at Morningside College in 2015 to join the Trump campaign as a chief policy adviser. He helped develop Trump’s campaign proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States, drawing opposition from some university administrators, a university spokesman told the outlet Iowa Starting Line.” [Washington Post, 10/31/17]
Clovis Assembled National Security Advisory Committee
March 2016: Clovis Helped Assemble Trump National Security Advisory Committee. According to NBC News, “In his role in the Trump campaign Clovis, a 25-year Air Force veteran, helped assemble Trump’s National Security Advisory Committee, chaired by then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), which was publicly announced in March 2016.” [NBC News, 10/31/17]
Clovis Hired Carter Page. According to the Daily Caller, “Last month, TheDC reported that Clovis, a former professor and talk radio host, was the Trump campaign official who officially brought Page onto the campaign. But what had been unclear was how Clovis, who now serves as a senior White House adviser for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, came into contact with Page before tapping him for the advisory position.” [Daily Caller, 4/13/17]
- Clovis “Assembled And Vetted The List Of Security Advisors The Included (Carter) Page.” According to the Washington Post, “Several former officials recall that when Page first showed up at Trump Tower, Lewandowski introduced him to other campaign aides. Lewandowski said he could not remember the encounter, which was first reported by the Daily Caller, but also did not rule it out. Clovis, who assembled and vetted the list of national security advisers that included Page, declined to comment. Now a top official at the Agriculture Department, Clovis had worked on Russia-related issues at the Pentagon in the 1980s and, as a candidate for U.S. Senate in Iowa in 2014, had questioned the effectiveness of sanctions imposed after Russia’s incursion into Ukraine.” [Washington Post, 5/25/17]
March 31, 2016: Clovis Attended Meeting With Trump, Papadopoulos, and Sessions. According to the New York Times, “At a March 31 meeting in a foreman’s lounge at the Trump Hotel in Washington, which was under construction, with Mr. Trump and the rest of the foreign policy team, Mr. Papadopoulos pitched the idea of a personal meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin. Mr. Clovis and others immediately expressed doubts about the wisdom of the idea, noting that Russia was under United States sanctions and denouncing the “optics” of a meeting with Mr. Putin, according to a former campaign aide who attended the meeting. But Mr. Trump listened with interest and asked questions of Mr. Papadopoulos. Mr. Trump “didn’t say yes, and he didn’t say no,” said the former aide, who agreed to describe the meeting on the condition of anonymity.” [New York Times, 10/31/17]
March 2016: Clovis Brought Papadopoulos Into Trump Campaign Foreign Policy Advisory Committee. According to Politico, “Clovis brought Papadopoulos into the campaign in March 2016, when he was asked to put together a foreign-policy advisory committee, according to the administration and campaign officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Trump felt pressure to hastily assemble a team because he was getting criticism for a lack of foreign policy manpower, these people said.” [Politico, 10/31/17]
Clovis Tapped Gary Baise To Help Organize Farm Leaders. According to Politico, “He’s been with Donald Trump from the very beginning,’ said Gary Baise, a leading agriculture lawyer in Washington, who Clovis enlisted to help organize farm leaders during the campaign. ‘He has a masterful understanding of how to appeal to Donald Trump for the benefit of agriculture.” [Politico, 7/30/17]
Clovis Appeared As Trump Campaign Surrogate
August 2016: Clovis Defended Trump Remarks On 2nd Amendment On CNN. According to Politico, “Trump campaign co-chair Sam Clovis characterized the comment and ensuing controversy as a learning experience for the campaign in an interview on CNN’s ‘New Day.’ He stopped short of calling Trump’s Second Amendment line a mistake, but said the campaign has ‘plenty of time’ to learn from it before the race picks up steam after Labor Day.” [Politico, 8/10/16]
August 2016: Clovis Defended Trump Remarks On Crimea On MSNBC. According to Politico, “Donald Trump’s campaign co-chairman offered up an alternate explanation for the Republican nominee’s recent comments about the geopolitical situation between Russia and Crimea: He ‘was thinking about something else’ when he said that Vladimir Putin would not invade Ukraine. ‘I think, you know, I’ve run for office and I would — the phenomena I thought of when I was listening to the interview, Mr. Trump was thinking about something else and he answered the question when he was thinking about something else,’ Sam Clovis told MSNBC, adding, ‘I’m not trying to offer an excuse. But I will say, this is the — this is — the circumstance sometimes that, that — that happens. I think what was really at the heart of this.” [Politico, 8/1/16]
July 2016: Clovis Defended Trump Remarks On Dallas Shooting. According to Politico, “One of Donald Trump’s top policy advisers and co-campaign chairmen struggled Wednesday to substantiate the presumptive Republican nominee’s claim at a rally the previous night that ‘some people [have asked] for a moment of silence’ for the Dallas gunman who killed five police officers last week. ‘Well, I have seen it reported that we have seen some very interesting moments in dealing with this tragedy,’ Sam Clovis told CNN’s Chris Cuomo during an interview on ‘New Day.” [Politico, 7/13/17]
Clovis Encouraged Papadopoulos’ outreach
Clovis Replied “Great Work” For Papadopoulos’ Outreach To Russians. According to NBC News, “The court documents unsealed Monday describe emails between Papadopoulos and an unnamed “campaign supervisor.” The supervisor responded “Great work” after Papadopoulos discussed his interactions with Russians who wanted to arrange a meeting with Trump and Russian leaders.” [NBC News, 10/31/17]
- Clovis Lawyer Toensing Confirmed Clovis Was “Campaign Supervisor” In Papadopoulos Emails. According to NBC News, “Toensing confirmed that Clovis was the campaign supervisor in the emails. Clovis, a former Air Force officer and Pentagon official who unsuccessfully ran for Iowa State Treasurer in 2014, was the Trump campaign’s chief policy adviser and national co-chairman.” [NBC News, 10/31/17]
August 2016: Clovis Encouraged Papadopoulos To “Make The Trip” To Meet With Russian Officials. According to NBC News, “In August 2016, according to court documents, Papadopoulos told Clovis about his efforts to organize an “off the record” meeting with Russian officials. ‘I would encourage you” and another foreign policy adviser to the campaign to “make the trip, if it is feasible,’ Clovis responded.” [NBC News, 10/31/17]
Clovis Lead Trump’s USDA Landing Team
Clovis Lead Trump Transition ‘Beachhead Team’ At USDA. According to Politico, “The Iowa Republican, who led the Trump transition’s beachhead team for USDA and currently serves as the department’s liaison to the White House, portrays himself as an economist — but his Ph.D. is in public administration. At Morningside College, a small liberal arts school in Sioux City, Clovis taught classes on business, management and public policy, according to internet archives, and didn’t appear to publish any major peer-reviewed work.” [Politico, 7/30/17]
Clovis Served In Trump Administration
Clovis “Known To Have A Direct Line To The President.” According to Politico, “Clovis is also known to have a direct line to the president, a level of access far above that which is usually enjoyed by USDA’s head of research — something that is not lost on agricultural groups.” [Politico, 7/30/17]
October 2017: Clovis Currently Serving As “Unpaid White House Adviser” To USDA. According to NBC News, “He is currently serving as an unpaid White House adviser to the Agriculture Department, awaiting Senate confirmation before the Agriculture Committee for the scientist job. He is not a scientist.” [NBC News, 10/31/17]
July 2017: Trump Nominated Clovis For USDA Undersecretary Of Research, Education And Economics. According to the Washington Post, “Trump nominated him in July to be the Agriculture Department’s undersecretary of research, education and economics, a top science position that oversees the agency’s extensive scientific mission. The chief scientist also oversees the economic bureaus, including the Natural Agricultural Statistics Service and the Economic Research Service.” [Washington Post, 10/31/17]
- 10/31/17: White House Stood Behind Clovis’ Nomination For USDA. According to The Hill, “Several media outlets have reported that Papadopoulos reported directly to Clovis. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at Tuesday’s briefing that he would remain the Agriculture nominee for now. ‘I’m not aware that any change would be necessary at this point,’ she said.” [The Hill, 10/31/17]
April 2017: Clovis Designed Strategy And Prepped Sec. Purdue To Persuade Trump To Stay In NAFTA. According to Politico, “What Clovis lacks in science chops, he makes up for in knowing — really understanding — Trump. Back in April, when Trump was on the verge of withdrawing the U.S. from NAFTA, it was widely reported that Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue helped walk the president away from the ledge by showing up at an Oval Office meeting with a map of the U.S. that pointed out areas that would be most harmed by an abrupt withdrawal — many of them counties and states that voted for Trump, and many of them rural. It was actually Clovis who prepped Perdue for the meeting and Clovis who suggested the secretary take along the map to drive home his point in a visual, high-impact way, multiple sources with knowledge of the exchange said. Clovis did not respond to multiple inquiries from POLITICO.” [Politico, 7/30/17]