President Donald Trump employs several of his family members to work within his White House administration and help him run his business. His daughter Ivanka Trump serves as an advisor, and her husband, Jared Kushner, serves as assistant to the president and senior advisor. Trump’s older sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, are executive vice presidents of The Trump Organization.
The Trump administration also employs the son of Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney. The White House pays him nearly six figures to serve as a sports liaison.
According to government documents, Giuliani’s son, Andrew H. Giuliani, makes $95,000 per year working for the White House. His official title is “Special Assistant to the President and Associate Director of the Office of Public Liaison.”
In 2009, the Obama Administration’s decision to hire actor Kal Penn to serve as an associate director in what was then called the Office of Public Engagement made headlines. Penn was reportedly paid $41,000 per year. He left the job in 2011 to return to acting full-time.
The 31-year-old Giuliani has served in the Office of Public Liaison, which acts as “the primary line of communication between the White House and the public,” since March 2017.
He made $77,000 serving as an associate director in 2017, and got a raise in 2018 to $90,700 though his title didn’t change. In the two years he has been employed by the White House, his pay has increased by $18,000.
Andrew reportedly acts as a “liaison to the sports community” and helps coordinate visits from sports teams to the White House.
During his tenure in the role, there have been several controversies in which championship-winning teams that typically visit the White House to celebrate their win were not invited. Several teams have also declined the invitations.
Players have declined invitations to the White House from previous presidents — Manny Ramirez refused to visit during George W. Bush’s time in office and Tom Brady skipped out on an invite from the Obamas citing scheduling conflicts.
Rudy Giuliani told The Atlantic that hiring Andrew “wasn’t the usual ‘hire my kid’ situation.” “He’s known the president since he was a baby,” he told The Atlantic. “Now, did he know him in the first place because he was the mayor’s son? Sure, but they also had a relationship independent of me.”
“He doesn’t really try to be involved in anything,” an anonymous former senior White House official told The Atlantic. “He’s just having a nice time.”
Andrew Giuliani volunteered for the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and often plays golf with the president, according to reporting from Axios. In 2018, he spoke with Axios about his close relationship with the president:
“The president has been there for me, for the good times, but more importantly through the bad,” Giuliani said in the interview. “That’s just the kind of man he is. I’m grateful that he’s always been willing to give me his advice on personal matters and I consider him to be my good friend and even a father figure. His family is my family.”
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