Anthony "Tony" Senecal, the former Mar-A-Lago butler of Donald Trump, wasn't offering up any apologies or regret Wednesday about his recent controversial comments toward President Barack Obama.
Senecal, 74, made headlines last month after his Facebook posts suggested President Barack Obama should be hanged went viral and prompted a U.S. Secret Service investigation.
Senecal, speaking to members of Gold Coast Tiger Bay Club of Boca Raton at City Fish Market, told reporters after the event that the media was “looking for something to grab hold of” and that he “wrote stuff maybe five or six years ago that was even more damning than what was written in past months.”
He called Obama a traitor in the racially charged Facebook posts, which were exposed by Mother Jones in early May. That prompted a Secret Service investigation.
Agents interviewed Senecal at his Lake Worth apartment in May, questioning whether he owned any guns or planned to take a trip to Washington D.C., he said.
He was banned from Facebook for one month, he said, which he expects to expire in about a week.
The response to his previous posts won’t stop him from firing off more opinions on Facebook, he said, “Let me tell you, I don’t back off of any statement I make.”
Trump, who employed Senecal for two decades, distanced himself from the former butler following the investigation. A spokesperson for the Republican presidential candidate issued a statement saying the campaign “totally and completely disavow(s) the horrible statements made by him regarding the President.”
Senecal wasn’t surprised, he said.
“I don’t think (Trump) would appreciate (the statements), but he does realize it’s my First Amendment right to say what I feel,” he said, adding that he hadn’t spoken to Trump or anyone from the campaign since the Facebook posts were published.
Senecal also shared with the crowd some intimate details about working for the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee.
“He’s incredible,” Senecal repeatedly told the non-partisan political club.
He was quick to address some of the controversy around the alleged racist comments that Trump made about a Mexican-American judge.
“I saw him working with everybody, the Hispanics, the blacks, the foreigners, he would talk with any of them, all of them. There isn’t a racist bone in his body,” Senecal said.
“I got accused of the same thing but that’s another matter,” he said, to laughs from the crowd.
Known for serving as the unofficial historian of Mar-a-Lago, Senecal said there were three rules to working for Trump: "Don't lie to him, don't steal from him and don't embarrass him."
He spoke of a disagreement between the men.
“He hands a wad of cash to me and says, ‘Don’t tell anyone I gave this to you,’ ” Senecal recalled. “That’s as close to an apology I ever got.”
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