John Solomon says he is being vetted for Trump advisory role

A special government employee can legally serve as a part-time outside adviser to the federal government, but the label also brings a built-in limit: Congress created the category in 1962, and SGEs are generally capped at 130 days of service in a year. That makes the status powerful enough to grant access, while still sitting outside the normal structure of a full-time federal appointment.

John Solomon said he was being vetted for that kind of role as the Trump White House continued to lean on the designation for high-profile allies. The administration already used SGE status for Elon Musk, and on Feb. 7, 2025, the White House said Pastor Paula White-Cain would return as a Special Government Employee and senior adviser in the newly created White House Faith Office. Those moves have turned a rarely noticed personnel category into a central mechanism for bringing outside figures into the governing circle.

The broader pattern has drawn sharp criticism from ethics and good-government groups, including Public Citizen and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Public Citizen said the Trump administration deployed the SGE designation to place at least a dozen others in high-level roles in three federal agencies. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities argued that the administration had granted sweeping authority to special government employees, “creating a significant potential for corruption and abuse of power.”

Solomon is no ordinary applicant for an advisory slot. He founded Just the News in 2020 and serves as its chief executive officer and editor in chief. Before that, he held reporting or editorial jobs at The Associated Press, The Washington Times and The Hill. He has long been identified with pro-Trump media circles, and his possible entry into government would further blur the line between political loyalty, media advocacy and public service.

The access question is especially sharp because Trump in 2022 named Solomon and Kash Patel as representatives for access to presidential records from his administration. That earlier designation gave Solomon a formal role tied to Trump’s post-presidency records, and it now underscores how closely he has been linked to Trump’s political and institutional orbit. In Washington, D.C., the debate over SGEs is no longer just about staffing. It is about how much governing can be handed to trusted outsiders before transparency and accountability begin to erode.