Dave Portnoy claims he received a shock offer to work for the US government following Donald Trump’s re-election as president.
The Barstool Sports founder opened up on the astonishing phone call he had with a member of Trump’s administration ‘a couple of months ago’ in a video shared on his X account Tuesday morning.
However, Portnoy revealed that the job would have forced him to relinquish control of Barstool – the digital media company he launched back in 2003.
‘I got a call, I don’t know, a couple months ago? I don’t know when I got the call,’ he explained after claiming ‘nobody paid attention’ when he mentioned the offer during a recent appearance on Fox News.
‘It was like, “Hey, would you have any interest, Dave, in joining the Department of Commerce [as] commerce secretary under [Howard] Lutnick, or the guy working under him?
‘But a caveat of joining the government is somebody would have to run Barstool. You can’t run Barstool and work for the government. I guess Elon [Musk] doesn’t have a specific title, but you kinda want your CEO with the eye on the ball, right?’
Dave Portnoy claims he received a shock offer to work under Donald Trump’s government
Portnoy had questioned Musk’s role as CEO of Tesla while he carries out his duties with DOGE – the Department of Government Efficiency – before opening up on his job offer from Trump’s White House.
Yet even if he wished to accept the offer and step back from Barstool, the 47-year-old says the government went quiet on him after the call.
‘By the way, even if I wanted to do that, they never followed up,’ he added. ‘They were like, “Let us know if you could find somebody to run Barstool and you’re interested in it. If you are interested, we’ll schedule a call in a week for the next steps.” That never happened, so it was weird.’
Portnoy, who was an ardent supporter of Trump in the buildup to the recent presidential election, has not been afraid to criticize the 78-year-old despite seemingly voting for him back in November.
The American businessman and social-media personality frequently shares his political views online, and he did exactly that after Trump’s Congressional address last week.
He couldn’t help but nitpick one particular line from the president’s address, referencing Musk after he declared ‘the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over.’
‘Gotta admit this one didn’t quite land since Elon is basically Co-President,’ Portnoy remarked on X.
He similarly criticized Trump over Musk’s role in a post questioning everything from DOGE to his decision to bring accused sex traffickers Andrew and Tristan Tate back from Romania.
Portnoy was an ardent supporter of Trump in the leadup to the recent presidential election
But he has not been afraid to criticize the president despite seemingly voting for him
‘What’s the point of booting out illegals and criminals while somehow becoming a safe haven for the Tate brothers?’ he asked on social media.
However, last week Portnoy saved most of his vitriol for Democratic critics of the president.
Asked by Fox News’ Will Cain about the protests and frequent interruptions from the his political opponents, the Barstool founder and Trump supporter blasted Democrats for what he saw as childish stunts.
‘…There’s a lot of people complaining for [Trump] trying to do exactly what he said he was elected to do,’ the 47-year-old Portnoy said. ‘And then you see something like last night, and it feels like a kindergarten skit.’
