Former Trump official speaks at Harrison County Republican … – Marshall News Messenger
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Updated: October 14, 2023 @ 2:59 pm
Scott Toland, former White House Assistant Staff Secretary and Special Assistant to former President Donald Trump, served as the feature speaker at the Harrison County Republican Women’s annual Columbus Day Dinner and Scholarship Fundraiser, held Monday.
Scott Toland, former White House Assistant Staff Secretary and Special Assistant to former President Donald Trump, served as the feature speaker at the Harrison County Republican Women’s annual Columbus Day Dinner and Scholarship Fundraiser, held Monday.
The family of the late Lou Gaw, her children Lee and Kathy Gaw, pose with Harrison County Republican Women president Donna Philyaw and Scott Toland, former White House Assistant Staff Secretary and Special Assistant to former President Donald Trump, after receiving proclamations in honor of their mother at the Republican Women’s annual Columbus Day Dinner and Scholarship Fundraiser, held Monday.
Scott Toland, former White House Assistant Staff Secretary and Special Assistant to former President Donald Trump, served as the feature speaker at the Harrison County Republican Women’s annual Columbus Day Dinner and Scholarship Fundraiser, held Monday.
County/Courts Reporter
Robin Y. Richardson is an award winning print journalist, serving as the county government and courts reporter. She earned her journalism degree from TSU and master’s from LSUS. She is the proud mother of one daughter.
Scott Toland, former White House Assistant Staff Secretary and Special Assistant to former President Donald Trump, served as the feature speaker at the Harrison County Republican Women’s annual Columbus Day Dinner and Scholarship Fundraiser, held Monday.
Scott Toland, former White House Assistant Staff Secretary and Special Assistant to former President Donald Trump, served as the feature speaker at the Harrison County Republican Women’s annual Columbus Day Dinner and Scholarship Fundraiser, held Monday.
The family of the late Lou Gaw, her children Lee and Kathy Gaw, pose with Harrison County Republican Women president Donna Philyaw and Scott Toland, former White House Assistant Staff Secretary and Special Assistant to former President Donald Trump, after receiving proclamations in honor of their mother at the Republican Women’s annual Columbus Day Dinner and Scholarship Fundraiser, held Monday.
Scott Toland, former White House Assistant Staff Secretary and Special Assistant to former President Donald Trump, served as the feature speaker at the Harrison County Republican Women’s annual Columbus Day Dinner and Scholarship Fundraiser, held Monday.
The Republican Women of Harrison County welcomed Scott Toland, former White House Assistant Staff Secretary and Special Assistant to former President Donald Trump, to its annual Columbus Day Dinner and Scholarship Fundraiser, held Monday.
Toland, who hails from the small town of Iola, Kansas and worked the last two years of the Trump Administration, served as the keynote speaker for the occasion, giving the crowd a glimpse of his life in the West Wing, which included a front row seat to some of the most historic feats in history.
“When Columbus discovered America over 500 years ago, he could’ve never imagined how many great things would take place on this land,” said Toland. “I was fortunate to have a front row seat to history and to get to see a lot of incredible moments for our country up-close.”
“So I am thankful for the opportunity to be here in Marshall and to get to share some of that experience with you,” he told the crowd at Monday’s fundraiser.
Toland, who now serves as senior editor and deputy general counsel at America First Policy Institute, said he hoped his speech would offer a new perspective on the White House, enlighten them on some unknown duties and offer them hope and confidence as a result of objectives accomplished.
“I’d like to give you hope and confidence. I’m proud of what we accomplished during the Trump administration,” said Toland. “We took a lot of important actions to help (strengthen) our economy, secure our border, achieve energy independence and keep the American people safe. So, I’d just like to give you hope and confidence that if our country did all of these things once, then we could do them again.”
Prior to working in the West Wing, Scott said, he too, was oblivious as to the role of the Staff Secretary’s Office.
“I didn’t know anything about what this office does or the important role it plays to serve the president. But during my time in the White House, I learned so much about how the West Wing works. And the more I learned, the more interesting it was,” he shared.
The West Wing is the working grounds for key roles such as the president himself, the White House press secretary, chief of staff, national security advisor. Scott noted it houses famous historic rooms, such as the situation room, the cabinet room, the president’s briefing room and the oval office.
It was his pleasure to join the approximately 70 employees, who worked in the West Wing, and even more of an honor to be one of six that worked in the Staff Secretary’s Office. One of the most exciting things was the visitation of various celebrities and athletes to the White House. The celebrity who stood out the most, however, was famous actor and Oscar winner John Voight, who received the National Medal of Arts from Trump in 2019.
“We were all very excited to meet him,” Toland said, as he showed a displayed a photo of the staff meeting the actor at the lower level of the White House. “I’ll never forget what he told us. He looked straight at us and he said: ‘This is amazing. Every day you walk into this place, you have the chance to help millions of people. That’s incredible. And I’ve always remembered that as it was just such a powerful reminder of the opportunity we have in front of us every single day we came into work.”
It made him reflect even more on the critical role his office played in the success of the West Wing. The office carried the great responsibility of controlling any and all documents that went to the president, making sure they were precise and presented to him in a timely manner.
Documents included everything from speeches to bills, to pertinent correspondences, classified information, executive orders and more.
“We only had six people on our team. It was a 24-7 job. We never knew when, but we had to be ready. Some documents would come from the CIA or the Pentagon, and we all had to be authorized to review those documents at any time,” shared Scott. “Every day, I was getting to work with people all across the federal government, in departments, agencies and everywhere in between to check on certain information, make political decisions and figure out which documents were ready for President Trump and when they were ready to go,” said Toland.
Toland showed the audience some of his favorite photos, including one from the 2020 State of the Union address. The moment was an important one for him because his office worked closely with the speech writing team, making sure things went smoothly.
“My office ultimately was responsible for every word of that speech,” Scott as he showcased a commemorative edition of the 2020 State of the Union speech to the crowd. “To me it’s a big keepsake because our office worked very hard on this, and ultimately everyone, including the president was very pleased.”
Toland said one of the most exciting parts of his job was having the honor of traveling with the president on Air Force One. He was able to document many of the experiences through photos. One of his most favorite memories is traveling on April 15, 2019 on Tax Day for a roundtable discussion in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was his first trip on Air Force One, and one he’ll always remember.
“I still remember the first time when I walked on Air Force One. It didn’t even seem real. I remember trying to find my seat and eventually I found it. And that’s the moment I saw this, a name card that said: ‘Mr. Toland, welcome aboard Air Force One.’ And, for me, that’s the moment it became real as I realized that I was really doing it and flying with President Trump across the country on the world’s most famous plane,” Toland recalled.
Another special trip was accompanying the former president to his final trip to Harlingen, on Jan. 12, 2021 to visit the Texas-Mexico border and celebrate the construction of the border wall. It was Trump’s last visit to Texas as commander-in-chief.
“It was the final trip; and, for me, one I would always remember,” said Toland.
Another great experience was witnessing Trump fulfill his campaign promise of creating the U.S. Space Force, the first new branch of the military since 1947. Toland exhibited Dec. 20, 2019 photo, capturing the president signing into law legislation creating the new armed service.
“This is just a big moment, really in the history of our country,” Toland, sharing he was responsible for securing the speech, the bill and even the pen that the president used to sign that day. “That bill that day, he signed, it created the Space Force and it also provided $800 billion of funding for the U.S. military for the next year. So it was a big moment. And then right afterwards, I saw President Trump and the First Lady backstage, they headed to Florida, but right before I got to shake hands and wish them a Merry Christmas. It’s a memorable moment.”
Toland’s biggest week of all, however, was getting the COVID relief bill to the president to sign during the Christmas holidays of 2020.
“That is what I call Christmas at Mar-a-Lago,” he said. “This was in December 2020 and Congress had just passed a huge COVID relief bill to keep the government open to prevent the government from shutting. That was a big moment for our country.”
He recalled briefing with the president in the Oval Office before both flying to Mar-a-Lago later that day.
“So we flew down on Air Force One but we did not take the bill with us. And at the time there was a lot of uncertainty. President Trump was still deciding whether or not he wanted to sign that bill. So no one really knew what was going to happen, but we got down to Mar-a-Lago and eventually on Christmas Eve they made the decision to fly the bill down to Palm Beach, Florida.”
Toland, along with a colleague, were the ones who met the military pilots at the airport to retrieve the cargo, carrying the bill.
“For three nights, that bill stayed in my room. And I’ll never forget the moment, heading back to my hotel at Mar-a-Lago on Christmas, heading back to my hotel room, turning on the TV, and the headline said: COVID relief bill flown to Palm Beach, and then I looked and next to the TV was the COVID relief bill. Then I knew that I was really responsible for anything that happened to that document,” said Toland. “It was a lot going on, but the clock was ticking. If President Trump didn’t sign that bill within 10 days, then the federal government would shutdown and no one would receive the $600 checks. So I stayed ready.”
That Dec. 27, he finally received word that Trump was ready to sign the bill. He called and met with him to accomplish that task.
“I gave him some final notes on the bill, he had some final questions and then he was ready to sign. He was very pleased with how it went,” said Toland. “So at the end, he said you know, I think we should give Scott the pen (as a keepsake). I didn’t know it at the time, but it is still the longest and the largest bill ever passed by Congress. It was 5,593 pages and worth $2.3 trillion. And once again, at that moment, I was responsible for our office.”
Toland expressed that it was a rewarding experience to work for the administration, and he’s glad he endured to the end, even after dozens began to leave, following Trump’s loss for re-election in November 2020.
“After the election in November 2020, some people started to go. Some of them had new opportunities; some were tired,” Toland recalled. “Whatever it was, some people just started clearing out. But I decided I wanted to stay. I’m from the middle of the country and I’ve been taught that when you start something, you finish it, and I wanted to stay until the end. So those last few weeks, they were not fun. The work was hard, but I’m glad I did it.”
He said, in the end, the West Wing dwindled from 70 to about 15 employees. His office went from six to two people.
“Those were long days and tough days, but I wanted to be there and I knew there was still a lot of important work to do,” said Toland.
On Jan. 19, 2020, his last night at the White House, he worked until the very end, doing all he could to complete unfinished tasks. The last responsibility he had was assuring Trump’s final speech was ready to be delivered at Joint Base Andrews before he exited office.
“We worked hard to make sure the final speech was ready,” he said, noting he was responsible for putting it on the podium for Trump’s address.
“I remember President Trump showed up to Joint Base Andrews; he looked at it and he didn’t use a word,” Toland chuckled. “And it actually made it even more special, because it really was from the heart.”
Toland said once Trump wrapped up his speech and boarded Air Force One, heading to Florida, he stayed behind to finish his last assignment.
“I remember going up on stage, taking the binder off the podium, and then when I walked off, I remember turning in my badge, turning in my government phone, turning in my government work computer. In that moment, it was all over,” said Toland. “But I’m thankful for my whole experience. I’m glad I stayed until the end.”
“I was fortunate to work there for two years, and to not just have a front row seat to history but a chance to help make it,” said Toland.
Toland also hopes his time in the White House will inspire others in their journey in life.
“I grew up in Iola, Kansas. It’s a very small town,” said Toland. “But, I learned that no matter where you come from, even if you’re from a very small town, you can still make a big difference, you can still serve you community, you can still serve your country and you can still help a lot of people,” he said. “And that’s the approach I tried to take with me into the White House.”
Harrison County Sheriff BJ Fletcher, who served as emcee of the event, thanked Toland for sharing his story. Toland thanked the Harrison County Republican Women for hosting such a wonderful event.
“It was so special to be here in Marshall today. I’m from a small town in Kansas, and it was especially meaningful to come here and see the work that the Harrison County Republican Women are doing and to share my story with them,” he told the News Messenger.
Scholarships
Toland said he appreciates what the organization is doing for the Republican Party, Texas and for the education of students.
“Scholarships helped to make it possible for me to attend college, so I know how important the mission behind tonight’s dinner really is,” he said.
Proceeds from the event benefit the Carolyn Abney Scholarship Fund. Donna Philyaw, president of the group, thanked all for their support of the fundraiser, which included a silent auction.
“We try to give out at least three scholarships every year and last year we gave out four because we had such a good response on our Columbus Day dinners,” shared Philyaw.
“Again, I want to thank everyone. This is how we raise money for these scholarships to further these young people’s education, so that they can make a difference in our country, in our county, the state and nation,” she said.
Honoring Lou Gaw
The group ended the evening with a special presentation to the family of longtime member, the late Lou Ethel Gaw, who died on July 16 at the age of 94. In honor of Gaw, Rhonda Anderson read proclamations presented on behalf of Gov. Gregg Abbott and State Rep. Jay Dean. The proclamations not only recognized Gaw’s significant contributions to the Republican Party, but also her dedication to First Methodist Church, her profession as an educator and her active roles in civic organizations including Rotary Club, the local library and boards of the annual Marshall Days at the Capitol, to name a few.
In addition to the proclamations, Anderson presented the family with a picture of Gaw with Kit Whitehill, president of the Texas Federation of Republican Women.
“it’s been my honor to know your mother and to do this presentation,” said Anderson.
County/Courts Reporter
Robin Y. Richardson is an award winning print journalist, serving as the county government and courts reporter. She earned her journalism degree from TSU and master’s from LSUS. She is the proud mother of one daughter.
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