John McEntee, who served in multiple senior roles during the first Trump administration, received $175,000 from Chinese tech giant Tencent for his lobbying work between July and September, according to a recently released document.
McEntee was President Donald Trump’s body man following his 2016 electoral victory and was later promoted to director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office while concurrently serving in a senior role within the president’s reelection campaign. The one-time political aide has since parlayed his relationships into a lucrative lobbying deal with Tencent, which the Department of Defense, now the Department of War, designated as a “Chinese military company” in January.
The designation means that the Pentagon has determined Tencent is either controlled by the Chinese military or that it plays a role in the Chinese Communist Party’s “military-civil fusion” strategy by helping the People’s Liberation Army develop technology or otherwise serving as a defense contractor. Department of War officials have not disclosed their specific findings on the firm.
“It’s obvious that the Biden Admin just added them to this list as part of their political vendetta against anything Chinese,” McEntee told the Washington Examiner. “Just like with TikTok, this is a global entertainment company that has done nothing wrong.”
Politico first broke the news of McEntee’s registration as a Tencent lobbyist in September; however, his compensation for the role has so far been unreported following its disclosure in a congressional document filed on Monday.
The newly released filing discloses that McEntee lobbied the Treasury Department, though he declined to list specific lobbying issues. Press reports published around the time of Tencent’s Pentagon designation suggested that the move may place pressure on the Treasury Department to place sanctions on the company — a weight that Tencent’s current status does not carry.
Tencent has publicly disputed its inclusion on the Pentagon’s list of Chinese military companies, calling the designation a “mistake.”
Media reports attest to Tencent’s ties to the CCP and its security apparatus.
Tencent has partnered with the CCP on military-related artificial intelligence research, used its messaging platform to help Chinese authorities arrest religious and political dissidents, has been inspected by the chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, and has pledged billions to the CCP’s “common prosperity” pledge. Tencent co-founder and CEO Ma Huateng, meanwhile, served two terms as part of the CCP-controlled National People’s Congress.
CHINESE MONEY SEEPS INTO EVERY LEVEL OF AMERICAN POLITICS
McEntee has independently attracted a large following on the Chinese social media platform TikTok and has accused American policymakers of using China as a scapegoat. He is also notable for his role in founding The Right Stuff, a dating app intended for conservatives.
“They’re not going to do the hard thing, right? They’re not going to take on Google and Facebook,” he was quoted as saying of Republican policymakers in an April 2023 Business Insider piece. “But they see an opportunity by using China.”
Tencent has also retained Daniel Marti, the Obama White House’s intellectual property czar from 2015 to 2017, among its army of lobbyists. Chinese firms more broadly have made efforts to hire Trump alumni as lobbyists, including those working for Ballard Partners and Mercury Public Affairs, following the 2024 presidential election, the Washington Examiner previously reported.
