Who Is Raj Shah? White House Aide Called Donald Trump 'Deplorable'

The principal White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah called President Donald Trump “deplorable,” before he joined the Trump administration, private messages revealed.

According to the messages analyzed by the New York Magazine, 33-year-old Shah, who was involved with the Republican National Committee (RNC) during the 2016 presidential elections, also described the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape as “some justice.”

He joined the RNC in 2012, but left the organization after a year and went to work for America Rising LLC as managing director. He rejoined RNC in February 2015. During his second stint there, Shah asked a co-worker to search for an old video footage of Trump.

The New York Magazine report stated six months after Trump declared he was seeking a Republican presidential nomination, Shah sent an email to a senior researcher at RNC named Andrew Hemming, asking for anti-Trump content.

The email which was sent Dec. 15, 2015, at 12.09 p.m. EST had the subject line “Dawg.” It consisted of a CNN transcript from 2008 where Trump spoke in support of former President Barack Obama and described Obama’s decision to make Hillary Clinton secretary of state “a great appointment.”

Shah, while asking for the video of the interview, wrote in the email, “Can we see if we’ve got?” He also cautioned Hemming about not using the RNC email to talk about this topic. Shah wrote, “Nothing on GOP mail.”

Hemming replied instantly to Shah’s messages, saying he would check if there was a video or not. At 1.04 p.m., Hemming sent Shah a message saying, “Yep we have it on DVD. Let me know what you want me to do with it.”

Hemming then sent the video to Shah at 2:21 p.m., to which Shah replied, “Tks man!”

On Dec. 18, which was the seven-year anniversary of the CNN interview which Trump gave, the Jeb Bush campaign released an advertisement titled “Happy Anniversary, Donald!”

The video in the advertisement was the same clip Hemming sent Shah, the report said. Hemming did not comment on the matter but he also didn’t say the messages were illegitimate.

On Oct. 7, 2016, just hours after the “Access Hollywood” tapes were released by the Washington Post, which showed Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women, Shah sent messages to Hemming stating the video was “justice.”

At 10.57 p.m., Shah wrote, “u wanna hear something a little f----- up?” to which Hemming replied, “Sure.”

Shah then wrote, “I’m kinda enjoying this, some justice. I honestly don’t think it’s the worst thing he’s [Trump] done but he somehow got passes for the other acts. … Trump is a deplorable.”

Shah was born in 1985 in Connecticut after his parents moved to the United States from India in the late 1970s.

He graduated from Brien McMahon High School, Connecticut, where he was named Ettinger Scholar, an honor given to the top graduates. Shah went on to study at Cornell University from where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in 2006, the Hour reported.

In the report, Shah’s father, Suresh Shah talked about his son’s interest in politics.

Suresh said, “In tenth grade I distinctly remember he [Raj Shah] used to come from school, he would have a snack, pull his backpack and he would go away. … Instead of hanging out with his friends, he was taking a bus and a train to go to Bridgeport to Congressman Chris Shays’ office and he would spend a couple hours there answering phones, picking up the mail, whatever. He was interested since then.”

Shah participated in debates and also worked numerous internships in Washington D.C. Suresh said after Shah experienced Washington D.C., nothing could stop him.

A senior White House official stated Shah earlier informed “his superiors in the administration” about the messages.

Hope Hicks, White House communications director, said in a statement:

“Raj Shah is a talented operative and skilled communicator. We have always known about his previous roles and are so pleased he is using his unparalleled capabilities to advance the agenda of President Trump, whom he has tremendous respect for. Perhaps if the leakers trying to undermine him were as talented and smart as Raj, they would be here fighting for the American people every day, rather than trying desperately to remain relevant by spreading information that Raj himself shared many months ago. Raj’s skills as a press secretary are only surpassed by his stellar character. ”