Matt Shupe

PR & Political Thrill-seeker. @TheAAPC 40 under 40, 3x Pollie Winner. Principal: @PraetorianPR, Comms/Spox: @CAGOP, @HarmeetKDhillon, @LeadershipInst faculty.

[Matt Shupe @MattShupePR]

Being the White House Press Secretary is the pinnacle of the career for someone in PR - it's akin to an attorney becoming a Supreme Court Justice.

Here are my thoughts as to the bare minimum of what the next press secretary needs to have and understand (in no particular order):

1) You can't just talk to and be friends with friendly media. You need to go out of your way to build and maintain sincere relationships across the political spectrum. This is often unseen, under-appreciated, but wildly important. Similarly, you need friends throughout the government, politics, and media, when something pops up totally foreign to you, you need people that can get you up to speed quick.

2) Anticipating needs, news stories, issues, and crisis is a fundamental part of your job. You can't become a psychic, but try to get close. You must understand when to parry and riposte. You need to make this incredibly difficult and complex job look easy and effortless.

3) Your client (the President/US Govt/American People) is ALWAYS the priority. There is no I/me.

4) You can't control the news cycle. Porsche didn't expect Tesla to announce a flying car yesterday, and welp. Long nights and tough questions are to be expected. Try your best to influence it, take control of it, and then navigate it to where you want to go. If it doesn't help your client, pivot as quickly as possible to what does. Embrace the suck.

5) We are weeks away from the mid-term election. Ballots are out. Instilling confidence in a Republican government is a priority, selling why we deserve two more years is a fundamental expectation.

6) This job isn't just about talking points. It's being charismatic, witty, confident yet humble, convincing and compelling without be slimy, speak to non-Republicans from a place of credibility and understanding. What you don't have in skill can be made up for with relationships, skill can't cover for a lack of relationships. You really need to have a lot of both. You are going to be talking to the American people on their best days and their worst days, about their aspirations and deepest fears, empathy for both needs to be demonstrated.

7) You must understand how the newsrooms and news cycles operate. While you don't need to have been a journalist, you must have an appreciation of their job and life.

8) A deep understanding of American pop culture is important. It's a core competency expected and tested of foreign service officers as they represent it to the world. You represent it to the American people and the world. Also, you're going to be meme'd - you gotta be able to laugh at it.

9) You're going to have two dozen different jobs such as sociologist, psychologist, stylist, strategist, journalist, policy expert, diplomat, secret keeper, problem solver, crisis manager, arbitrator, etc. you're expected to be, and need to be, an expert at all of them.

10) You need to be prepared to be the stick in the mud -- often. Being able to tell people senior to you and your peers NO, is crucial. Otherwise bad things will happen and "told you so" is meaningless.

11. The next person needs to be a veteran practitioner of this craft with the above 10 as a bare minimum.

[Matt Shupe @MattShupePR]

From @FoxNews: Nvidia risks prolonging the controversy surrounding CEO Jensen Huang if it overreacts or keeps feeding the news cycle, a crisis communications expert said.

“The worst thing they could do is overreact or drag out the news cycle,” Matt Shupe, principal at @PraetorianPR, told Fox News Digital.

Shupe argued that Huang has addressed the affair with his family and employees and that the investigations should now run their course.

“This is like a trip to the emergency room, it’s not going to be pleasant and it could affect you for the rest of your life, but the goal is to not die,” he said.

Read the rest here: https://t.co/L5zSxLtht1

[Stepheny Price @StephenyPrice]

Nvidia risks prolonging the scandal surrounding CEO Jensen Huang if it overreacts, a crisis communications expert warns. @MattShupePR tells Fox News Digital that Huang has addressed the affair with family & employees & should let investigations run their course.

[Bill Melugin @BillMelugin_]

NEW: DHS confirms to @FoxNews that a suspect arrested on a Newark to New Orleans United flight last night for allegedly storming the cockpit and claiming to have a bomb, leading to United putting out a hijack alert for the plane, is a 2x previously deported Honduran illegal alien.

Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto was arrested by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s office once the flight landed at MSY (New Orleans airport) and he has been charged with felony bomb threat, terroristic threats, and disorderly conduct.

Per DHS - Gomez-Alberto crossed the Texas border illegally in 2011 and was deported, then illegally re-entered through the New Mexico border in 2014 and was deported a second time. He illegally re-entered the country a third time in 2019, was arrested by Border Patrol, but was released from custody after an immigration judge ordered his release.

He is currently being held without bond by law enforcement in Louisiana.

[Alice @RationalBlonde]

I'm begging Jensen Huang to reconcile with his wife. we cannot afford another billionaire ex-wife entering her "I'm going to fix society by funding its most annoying people" era

[John W. Rich Kid (Wendy’s Fry Cook) @JohnWRichKid]

PLEASE LORI HUANG DO NOT DIVORCE YOUR HUSBAND

JENSEN MADE A MISTAKE AND HE WILL BE LOYAL FROM HERE ON OUT OKAY?

FORGET THE PAST, LIVE IN THE PRESENT

IF YOU DIVORCE YOUR HUSBAND, I WON’T BE ABLE TO PAY RENT NEXT MONTH

YOU ARE THE ONLY THING HOLDING UP THE ENTIRE WORLD ECONOMY

JUST BECOME POLYAMOROUS, OR BI SEXUAL, OR WHATEVER I DO NOT CARE

NVIDIA MUST SURVIVE. YOUR MARRIAGE MUST SURVIVE.

[Jennifer Van Laar @jenvanlaar]

I'm so proud of you, my friend. I know the heartache you suffered privately and the pain you held, and knowing that Sarv had been your anchor and comfort for so many years made it even more difficult to see the attacks against you during that convention and after.

These bigots are ignorant and ungrateful, yet you've worked to bless their lives anyway.

[Spencer Brown @SpencerBrown]

Harmeet achieved more to make the country better and more just in a few years than you will in your entire life.

[Harmeet K. Dhillon @HarmeetKDhillon]

No one prayed along, you fool. They showed respect for one of the faiths Americans practice. And in case you haven’t noticed, winning elections is a matter of addition, not subtraction. If you were competent at math or politics, you would understand. Apparently you are neither.

[Spencer Brown @SpencerBrown]

Harmeet Dhillon is a patriot.

She represented @YAF against UC Berkeley - and won - to ensure First Amendment rights are afforded to all students and has never backed down from a fight. Our country is better for her service.

[Matt Shupe @MattShupePR]

lol

[Andrew Kaczynski @KFILE]

Millennial Congress means that every single bill needs to end with LOL

[Matt Shupe @MattShupePR]

Can confirm.

[Monica Matthews On Air @monicaonairtalk]

Harmeet’s in full not taking any shit mode 🔥

[Matt Shupe @MattShupePR]

Mossad is everywhere.

[maxy 🐏 @endorphinheist]

new conspiracy just dropped

[Harmeet K. Dhillon @HarmeetKDhillon]

This is so wrong. I use the magic loop method on circular knitting, not straight needles 🤦🏽‍♀️

[Matt Shupe @MattShupePR]

Best tweet of the month:

[Politics On 𝕏 @PoliticsOnX]

🚨 BREAKING: Marco Rubio has been named acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, bringing his total number of simultaneous cabinet roles to 14.
He will not be taking requests.
He will be taking more yarn, though. 🧶 @HarmeetKDhillon

[Matt Shupe @MattShupePR]

I’m sorry, what?

[San Francisco Chronicle @sfchronicle]

The University of California has emerged as the new owner of the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, paying $193 million for the resort in one of the university system’s latest real estate investments. https://t.co/9VI77aSuoU

[Harmeet K. Dhillon @HarmeetKDhillon]

Update — these children deleted their racist post.

I had constraints in government on what I could say. They are over.

[Dhillon Law Group @dhillonlaw]

She’s back. After leading the DOJ Civil Rights Division, Harmeet Dhillon returns to Dhillon Law Group with two national initiatives: Anti-Woke Corporate Accountability and Freedom to Work, Speak and Bank. Illegal DEI, debanking and censorship are on notice.

[Matt Shupe @MattShupePR]

Three VERY socialist San Francisco Bay Area counties - San Francisco, Marin, and Alameda - moved - towards the Right

[Josh Barzon @JoshuaBarzon]

The 2026 midterms in one picture.

[Matt Shupe @MattShupePR]

@AMRAAMgroyper @NDRepublicans