--- title: Donald Trump Butler Anthony Senecal: 5 Things to Know description: What to know about Anthony Senecal—Donald Trump's longtime butler who called for President Obama to be killed. canonical: https://time.com/4328717/donald-trump-butler-anthony-senecal/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-12T23:27:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:10.077Z article:section: Politics og:title: 5 Things to Know About Donald Trump's Longtime Butler Anthony Senecal og:description: He called for President Obama to be killed og:url: https://time.com/4328717/donald-trump-butler-anthony-senecal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dec2209a6c3fab2/698892fc8e06015f64465d85/donald-trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 5 Things to Know About Donald Trump's Longtime Butler Anthony Senecal twitter:description: He called for President Obama to be killed twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dec2209a6c3fab2/698892fc8e06015f64465d85/donald-trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 5 Things to Know About Donald Trump's Longtime Butler Anthony Senecal > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=aa6e1d49-4b6a-4dad-ac75-0c6ff9a7d2d8&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White May 12, 2016 11:27 PM UTC  Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Charleston, West Virginia, onMay 5, 2016. Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Charleston, West Virginia, onMay 5, 2016. Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White May 12, 2016 11:27 PM UTC Donald Trump’s longtime butler [Anthony Senecal](http://time.com/4260411/donald-trump-butler/?iid=sr-link1) made headlines Thursday after it was revealed that he had posted to Facebook calling for President Obama to be killed. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, [denounced the butler’s “horrible statements”](http://time.com/4328621/donald-trump-campaign-butler-president-obama-murder/?xid=homepage) that put Senecal in the spotlight. Here’s what to know about the man at the center of the controversy. **He thinks Obama should be killed.** Senecal has frequently expressed his disapproval of the president, but the scale of his antipathy wasn’t widely known until [a report](http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/05/trump-butler-anthony-senecal-facebook-kill-obama) by _Mother Jones_ cited a post made Wednesday saying Obama “should have been taken out by our military and shot as an enemy agent in his first term!!!!!” In May 2015, Senecal also made a post saying that “Kenyan” Obama should be dragged from the “white mosque” and hung from the portico. **He lied to Trump about the mogul’s golf skills.** In a New York _Times_ [profile of Senecal](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/us/politics/donald-trump-butler-mar-a-lago.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&%5Fr=1), the butler said he would give Trump an inflated assessment of his golf performance by lying about the distances they were hitting balls at. --- > “” --- **He often makes controversial Facebook posts.** Senecal frequently [goes online to rant](http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/05/trump-butler-anthony-senecal-facebook-kill-obama) about everything from the 2016 election to [Beyonce’s halftime performance at the Superbowl](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/us/politics/donald-trumps-longtime-butler-calls-for-violence-against-obama-secret-service-to-investigate.html), according to the _New York Times_. One of his recurring themes is theories about how Obama is a secret Muslim out to destroy America. Last year, Senecal said that the president was [“castrating” the military](https://www.facebook.com/anthonypetersenecal/posts/1139108232785389) and added that it was “time for our Military to drag that fraud out of the white mosque and hang his a– for treason and other high crimes against AMERICA !!!!!!!“ **He is the unofficial historian of Mar-A-Lago.** Senecal, 74, has been a butler at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida since it was first owned by Marjorie Merriweather Post. He currently serving as the site’s [unofficial historian](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/us/politics/donald-trump-butler-mar-a-lago.html), after attempting to retire in 2009, according to the New York _Times_. **He was once the mayor of small town in West Virginia.** Senecal took a couple years off from his work at Mar-A-Lago in 1990 to be the mayor of Martinsburg, West Virginia. One of his accomplishments there included a proposal requiring panhandlers to carry begging permits at all times, the _Times_ [reports](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/us/politics/donald-trump-butler-mar-a-lago.html). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4328717/donald-trump-butler-anthony-senecal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4328717/donald-trump-butler-anthony-senecal/"},"headline":"5 Things to Know About Donald Trump's Longtime Butler Anthony Senecal","datePublished":"2016-05-12T23:27:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:10.077Z","description":"He called for President Obama to be killed","url":"https://time.com/4328717/donald-trump-butler-anthony-senecal/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dec2209a6c3fab2/698892fc8e06015f64465d85/donald-trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dec2209a6c3fab2/698892fc8e06015f64465d85/donald-trump7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-TRUMP","caption":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-TRUMP","creditText":"Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4328717/donald-trump-butler-anthony-senecal/","name":"5 Things to Know About Donald Trump's Longtime Butler Anthony Senecal"}}]}] ```