Dave Portnoy, owner of Barstool Sports and longtime supporter of President Trump, recently took to X, formerly Twitter, to reveal that he was approached with a job in the Trump administration.
His post included a tweet and a video of himself explaining how he would have had to give up running his sports, gambling, and pop-culture media company to fill such a role.
Dave Portnoy wants to know Elon Musk’s secret formula
Portnoy, who goes by @stoolpresidente on X, shared the post on Tuesday with claims that he had received a call that potentially offered him the opportunity to join the Commerce Department working under Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Portnoy conveniently omitted details regarding the nature of the job. However, he said he was told that if he agreed to become a government employee, he would have to relinquish his role as leader of Barstool.
It made him question how a person like Elon Musk, who serves as CEO of not one one, not two but a number of companies including Tesla and SpaceX, is able to juggle all his responsibilities while maintaining appearances as the leader of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Elon Musk poses beside President Trump after delivering his new Tesla. Source: The White House (X/Twitter)
“How do you run Tesla when you’re working on DOGE 24-7?” Portnoy wanted to know in the video. “You kind of want your CEO with the eye on the ball, right?”
Portnoy also stated that the White House never followed up after the initial outreach. That part did not surprise some of his followers on X. In fact, one user went as far as saying that they most probably had a rethink — most likely after realizing Portnoy has too much baggage to be in any position of government.
It is not completely far-fetched for Portnoy to have gotten such an offer, after all, he has been a vocal supporter of Trump since 2020 when he interviewed him at the White House at the tail end of Trump’s first term.
In fact, as far back as 2015, Portnoy was already planning to vote for Trump. “I don’t care if he’s a joke. I don’t care if he’s racist. I don’t care if he’s sexist. I don’t care about any of it. I hope he stays in the race and I hope he wins. Why? Because I love the fact that he is making other politicians squirm,” he wrote in a blog post at the time.
Dave Portnoy has become a high-profile memecoin investor
Dave Portnoy has courted controversy recently with his foray into the world of memecoin trading. Some of the memes he has been involved with include $Jailstool, a meme tied to his Barstool persona, which he personally endorsed and invested in; then $Trump and $Libra, which he promoted and also invested in.
Portnoy sees memecoin trading as a game of risk. He attracted criticism for leveraging his fame to manipulate market movements and advertise memes to his less crypto-savvy audience, transforming them into exit liquidity at the push of a button.
His involvement has led to accusations of rugs and market manipulation, with accusers claiming Portnoy typically sells his holdings after tweeting about a token.
So far, he has had massive wins and incredible losses in the space and while his approach to trading is seen as chaotic, it has been a source of entertainment to his audience whom he often carries along via live.
Dave Portnoy poses for a selfie on a street. Source: Dave Portnoy (X/Twitter)
Dave Portnoy is most popular for being the founder of Barstool Sports, which he established as a print publication.
In 2023, Dave Portnoy became the owner of Barstool again after buying it back from casino and online gambling operator Penn Entertainment for $1. The sale came months after Penn Entertainment paid about $550 million to acquire 100% control of Barstool before deciding to drop the company due to regulatory hurdles.
It was only after buying back the company that he realized an important fact — “we underestimated just how tough it is for myself and Barstool to operate in a regulated world.”
Portnoy claimed they were denied [gambling] licenses because of his affiliation with the company and even conceded that the regulated industry [is] probably not the best place for Barstool Sports or its content.
Reasons why his affiliation would cause so much harm to his company can most likely be traced to the many past allegations of racism, sexism and sexual misconduct Portnoy has been linked to over the past several years.
Portnoy has publicly denied all the allegations, claiming that the encounters were consensual. That was years ago. More recent scandals involving Portnoy have not had anything to do with his Barstool business.
Business owners who received offers of employment from Trump’s government
Portnoy’s desire to know how Musk can juggle his roles as CEO and handle his responsibilities at DOGE is valid.
When the government reaches out to a person with a post and they accept the position, they usually have to step back from their previous engagements to be able to serve fully.
Musk did not have to leave his roles because he is a special government employee, not a Cabinet member.
Aside from Elon Musk, four other cabinet members of Trump also have extensive roots in the business world. Howard Lutnick, who, was nominated as Secretary of Commerce is the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a major financial services firm; Linda McMahon who, was nominated as Secretary of Education, is the former CEO of WWE and a prominent business figure; Scott Bessent, the Secretary of the Treasury is a hedge fund manager and CEO of Key Square Group, a major investment firm while Doug Burgum the Secretary of the Interior is a former CEO of Great Plains Software which was sold to Microsoft for $1.1 billion.
Lutnick has had to disclose his financial holdings and step back as CEO of Cantor after rivals highlighted how his ties to the company, which is famous for its relationship with the Chinese, could pose a conflict of interest.
