NEW YORK – Among the four staffers in Donald Trump’s inner circle who survived the campaign trail is Greek-American George Gigicos, a Deputy Assistant and the Director of Advance for President Trump, and who the organizer of each one of his rallies.
Gigicos is one of the few on the Trump team with actual White House staff experience. He previously served as an advance man for President George W. Bush, as reported in Time magazine.
A central figure and one of the “original five” who traveled with Trump around the country during the primaries, Gigicos as Director of Advance is responsible for trip-planning and Trump’s schedule.
Also of note is the fact that Gigicos was the only person to join the Trump campaign when the establishment chose to ignore or even dismiss Trump’s presidential bid.
Gigicos is expected to work very closely with the president daily. As one top aide told Time of President Trump, “he doesn’t like being alone,” noting that Trump often takes calls on his phone (which has now been traded for a secure device) and watches cable news.
The aide continued, as quoted in Time “when he’s bored, he calls in Hope [Hicks], Keith [Schiller], [Dan] Scavino, John [McEntee] or George [Gigicos] to work on some new thing or to point out some news story he likes.”
Scavino described the new president’s inner circle as bonded by fire, Time reported. “We’ve been through it all together. We’re like family,” he said, referring to difficult days of the campaign, all the protests, and negative stories. Scavino continued, “We all have our lanes and one common goal, and that’s to look out for our boss and see him succeed.”
An open-door policy for his closest advisors is how Trump will apparently work every day. The inner circle will be close even during off-hours at the White House. Choosing their housing with the distance from the Oval Office in mind, some of Trump’s top aides will live within walking distance of the new President.
According to Time, one chose an apartment only a quarter of a mile from the White House and as Scavino observed about his inner circle, “We have his back.”
An Alabama native with roots in Kalamata, Gigicos has worked in logistics for campaigns or organizations since his college days when he worked in President George H.W. Bush’s administration as a travel assistant in the Treasury Department.
During the busiest time in the Trump campaign, Gigicos, 49, often worked late, rarely leaving his 15th floor office in Trump Tower before 10:30PM, his coworkers said, as reported by Bloomberg News.
In the early days of the campaign, Gigicos was on his own, but soon 100 workers joined his staff. He would send advance teams of four people a week ahead of Trump campaign events, advising them live through Facetime calls on scouting locations and ironing out the details.
Gigicos is proud of his Greek culture and heritage, and is an Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Greek Orthodox Church.
On the eve of the inauguration, he was honored with the Archdiocesan Medal of St. Paul for outstanding service to the Greek Orthodox Church.
The medal was presented by His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios to Gigicos’ parents Fr. Dean and Presvytera Elaine, who accepted the award on his behalf at The Hellenic Initiative reception in Washington.
During his busy campaign schedule, the devoted family man would fly home to attend the ballet recitals of his two daughters, ages 6 and 9, at the time.
As Bloomberg reported, Gigicos made sure not to miss the girls’ first day of school, flying home, arriving in the middle of the night, seeing the girls off in the morning, and then flying back to New York.
Unfortunately, Gigicos missed one performance when he was in California on the campaign trail. Learning of the stressful situation for Gigicos, Trump recorded a video message for the girls explaining their dad’s absence.
As Bloomberg reported, Trump said in the message, “Girls, your father really loves you. We’re running for President. If it’s OK with you, I’ll steal your father for the day. He’s a very talented guy and I need him. Thank you, girls.”
Gigicos was moved by his boss’ thoughtfulness and the girls just said, “Cool,” as reported by Bloomberg.
A very private person, Gigicos usually shies away from the spotlight. As a member of Trump’s inner, inner circle, it is unclear if he will be able to maintain a low-profile for very long.
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