Hogan Gidley


John Hogan Gidley is an American political aide who served as White House Deputy Press Secretary from 2019 to 2020. He previously served as a Junior Deputy Press Secretary from 2017 to 2019. In July, 2020, Gidley became the press secretary of the Trump presidential re-election campaign.

Early life and career

Gidley was born in El Dorado, Arkansas. He graduated from the University of Mississippi with a degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in political science in 1998. In college, Gidley was a member of the Young Republicans.

Career

Gidley served as the director of Huck PAC. His past activities include director of media operations for Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Executive Director of the South Carolina Republican Party, Press Secretary to the David Beasley for Senate campaign, the Karen Floyd for Superintendent of Education campaign, and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole's campaign committee. He was the director of communications for the 2012 presidential campaign of Rick Santorum.

Trump administration

The Trump administration announced on October 10, 2017 that Gidley would serve as a Junior Deputy Press Secretary, and he started his job at the White House the day after.
In February 2018, Gidley said that Trump was speaking "tongue-in-cheek" when Trump said that 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 the position of Deputy Press Secretary, succeeding Raj Shah. In June 2019 Gidley was considered a candidate for White House Press Secretary when Sarah Sanders announced she was stepping down from the role. Stephanie Grisham was named to the position with Gidley continuing on as Deputy Press Secretary.
On September 5, 2019, The Washington Times published an opinion piece written by Gidley and press secretary Stephanie Grisham, titled "The Washington Post's lost summer". The authors asserted the Post had not reported on several Trump accomplishments, although the paper actually did report on them. In one instance, 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 the event.
In June 2020, Gidley resigned from his position as White House Deputy Press Secretary to serve as the national press secretary of the Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign. He was succeeded as deputy press secretary by Brian R. Morgenstern, a former official in the United States Department of the Treasury.