Dave Portnoy, the brash owner of Barstool Sports and President Trump supporter, said he was approached a job in the Trump administration — but that he didn’t want to give up running his sports, gambling and pop-culture media company.
Portnoy, who goes by @stoolpresidente on X, posted a video Tuesday on the platform claiming he had received a call about potentially joining the Commerce Department working under Secretary Howard Lutnick. (Portnoy didn’t detail the nature of the job.)
However, according to Portnoy, he was told that if agreed to work for the U.S. government he would have to find someone else to run Barstool. He then questioned how Elon Musk, who is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and runs other companies, is able to manage all his obligations while leading Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting initiative.
“How do you run Tesla when you’re working on DOGE 24-7?” Portnoy asked rhetorically in the video. “You kind of want your CEO with the eye on the ball, right?” Portnoy also noted that the White House never followed up after the initial outreach.
In 2023, Portnoy bought Barstool back from casino and online gambling operator Penn Entertainment for $1. That came just months after Penn Entertainment paid a total of about $550 million to acquire 100% control of Barstool, before deciding to part ways with Barstool. Penn’s fire sale of Barstool back to Portnoy came as Penn entered into a major deal with ESPN to rebrand the online sports-betting business from Barstool Sportsbook to ESPN Bet.
Portnoy had founded Barstool in 2002. When he bought back the company, he conceded that “we underestimated just how tough it is for myself and Barstool to operate in a regulated world.” According to Portnoy, “We got denied [gambling] licenses because of me. So the regulated industry [is] probably not the best place for Barstool Sports and the type of content we make.”
The Barstool founder — who has faced past allegations of racism, sexism and sexual misconduct — interviewed Trump in 2020 at the White House at the tail end of Trump’s first term. In 2015, Portnoy said he was planning to vote for Trump, writing in a blog post, “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.”
