Anthony Senecal: Why did Donald Trump hire a man with such 'horrible' views as his personal butler

The most important thing for a butler to learn, declared Anthony Senecal, a longtime attendant to Donald Trump, is to “keep your mouth shut”.

The 84-year-old would likely admit that he has not always followed his own advice.

This week, the man whose job was to get whatever the New York tycoon wanted “as quickly and efficiently as possible”, found himself at the centre of a self-lit firestorm after a magazine uncovered social media posts in which he called for the death of President Barack Obama.

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One of them read: “This character who I refer to as zero (0) should have been taken out by our military and shot as an enemy agent in his first term.”

After the revelation, the Secret Service confirmed it was looking into the matter, while the Trump campaign sought to distance itself from the man who served the real estate billionaire up close for many years.

Speaking from his Florida home in Lake Worth, a 20 minute drive from the Mar-a-Lago-Club where he attended to Mr Trump’s every demand, he told The Independent he had been visited by a Secret Service agent and three police officers on Thursday evening.

“They came to my apartment. There was one Secret Service agent and three sheriff’s deputies,” he said. “They basically asked if I had a gun and whether I wanted to go to Washington.”

Asked he he believed the agency was taking the messages he posted on Facebook seriously, he said: “They have to.”

Mr Senecal was the subject of a lengthy profile earlier this year in the New York Times that revealed how he had been an employee at the Mediterranean-style property, built 90 years ago by the cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, since 1960.

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He said that when Mr Trump bought the estate in 1985, “I came with the furniture”. Mr Trump has since used the elegant estate as a getaway, for hosting social events and as the venue for many of the victory news conferences he held after winning primary elections.

But the profile failed to mention the many Facebook posts that Mr Senecal had made over the years and which were revealed this week by Mother Jones magazine.

Another of the postings read: “I feel it is time for the SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION !!!!! The only way we will change this crooked government is to douche it !!!!! This might be the time with this kenyan fraud in power !!!!! ...[W]ith the last breath I draw I will help rid this America of the scum infested in its government—and if that means dragging that ball less dick head from the white mosque and hanging his scrawny ass from the portico—count me in !!!!!”

The magazine reported that last summer, one of Mr Senecal’s Facebook friends wrote a message that referred to Michelle Obama as “Sasquatch”, and called for her and Mr Obama to be hanged. Mr Senecal responded: “Amen....Two of the most DISGUSTING individuals on the face of God's Green Earth !!!! Puke !!!!!!”

Mr Senecal, who said he was “angry and mean”, claimed that nether he or his posts were racist. “Never have been, never will be.”

Speaking by phone, Mr Senecal he believed Mr Trump was the ideal candidate to be president.

“It’s not just because I know him. He is all about honesty and he is honesty. [The current government] is so corrupt,” he said. “They all need to have their arses handed to them. Harry Reid [the Democratic leader in the Senate] should go to jail.”

Mr Senecal said he was not asked by the police to put an end to his comments or his postings on social media. He said it was his constitutional right to do so.

As if to prove his point, he added of Mr Obama: “I think he is a traitor and a fraud. I think he should be hanged or thrown in the electric chair.”

The Secret Service has said it is investigating the matter though a spokesman refused to confirm whether an agent had visited Mr Senecal this week.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign sought to distance itself from Mr Senecal, who stopped working as a butler in 2009. He now works as the in-house historian at Mar-a-Lago, a position for which he receives no salary but which is supplemented by the tours he gives of the estate.

Hope Hicks, a Trump campaign spokeswoman, said in an email: “We totally and completely disavow the horrible statements made by him.”

Yet many on social media have asked why the presumptive Republican candidate for president would wish to employ a man with such “horrible” views in such an intimate job. They have also pointed out that this was not the first time Mr Trump has found himself at the centre of controversy over his association with people with extremist opinions.

Earlier this year, the 69-year-old was accused of failing to denounce a former Ku Klux Klan leader who had announced his support for his candidacy.

Just this week, it emerged that a white supremacist had been selected as a delegate for Mr Trump in California. The campaign said it had happened as the result of a computer error.

Mr Senecal said he had not heard from either Mr Trump or his campaign since the controversy erupted. “His campaign has said what they would say and that is that. It does not bother me at all,” he added. “I would do exactly the same.”