In hindsight, the phraseвЂ™s rise is also a good illustration of why Scavino, as the behind-the-scenes cheerleader and relentless documentarian of the Trump movement, deserves significant credit for its success. The Trump Train, it soon became clear, was a juggernaut, and before long the phrase became second only to вЂњMake America Great AgainвЂќ as Trump fansвЂ™ most cherished meme.

But the reality-TV starвЂ™s fan base continued to grow, in defiance of polling and Beltway groupthink and in direct proportion (or so it seemed) to his mounting pile of scandals and outrГ© policy proposals. At the time, TrumpвЂ™s presidential ambitions seemed like a populist burlesque rather than anything that could seriously be called a political movement. As to his actual value, Hicks offered a curious descriptor I would also hear from several others: Scavino was вЂњthe conductor of the Trump Train.вЂќДЇor those who have forgotten the history of that particular phrase, the вЂњTrump TrainвЂќ began early in the campaign as a quixotic rallying cry. (Scavino declined to be interviewed for this article.) Dan, she said, was simply a selfless public servant who worked tirelessly for the president of the United States. The story had already been done, she maintained vaguely, before adding that Scavino was himself unlikely to pull back the curtain any further about his life - and besides, she hastened to assure me, there really wasnвЂ™t much of a curtain to pull back. вЂњScavino,вЂќ both parties to the lawsuit agreed, вЂњassists President Trump in operating the account, including by drafting and posting tweets to the account.вЂќ No one else, besides Trump himself, had access to the most consequential and controversial social media account in the world.ДЄ couple of months after the lawsuit was filed, I paid a visit to the White House to inform Hope Hicks that I wanted to write about Scavino and his value to the president. The only official function Scavino filled that might justify his salary and his prime White House real estate was detailed in the lawsuitвЂ™s stipulation of facts. But ScavinoвЂ™s sole task, from what I could tell, was to document TrumpвЂ™s popularity. The other fixtures on TrumpвЂ™s plane - Hicks, the campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, the policy adviser Stephen Miller and the security director Keith Schiller - had roles that, in a famously unorthodox campaign, at least seemed familiar. Aggressively nondescript, Scavino could often be seen in a suit at the side of the stage, taking photos of the immense rally crowds with his iPhone and later, while scowling at his laptop aboard TrumpвЂ™s 757, posting the images to Facebook. Scavino was another of the вЂњoriginalsвЂќ on TrumpвЂ™s 2016 campaign, and I saw him numerous times on the trail, but I could never quite ascertain what he was doing to further his bossвЂ™s presidential ambitions. But the third, unlike Hicks and Sanders, was someone most Americans have never heard of: a man named Dan Scavino Jr. A second was TrumpвЂ™s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the presidentвЂ™s designated mouthpiece. One of them was Hope Hicks, long a public face of Trump World, the 29-year-old former model who spent the past three years as TrumpвЂ™s media liaison before leaving the White House in late March. Though reads like the unabridged representation of a singular manвЂ™s impulses, three other defendants were named in the suit, which is expected to be ruled upon in the Southern District of New York in the coming months. Though TrumpвЂ™s Twitter account purports to be a personal one, the plaintiffs argued, his writings invariably involved government business and executive opinions - making his posts a public forum to which all American citizens should be guaranteed access. The plaintiffs, represented by Columbia UniversityвЂ™s Knight First Amendment Institute, were seven individuals - ranging from a freelance journalist to a New York comedian to a Texas police officer - who had sent negative replies to an tweet and were subsequently blocked by the president. Instead, it was the possible unconstitutionality of the way he uses one feature of the platform: the block button. It wasnвЂ™t the tone or content of TrumpвЂ™s approximately 37,300 tweets that had landed him in trouble. Last July, President Donald Trump was sued in federal court over his Twitter habits.

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