Trump human trafficking advisor is former baseball exec who said game 'controlled by Satan'

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Kevin Malone refers to himself as a human trafficking “abolitionist,” but his previous title was General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. A former baseball executive and scout for 17 years, Malone has been out of the game since 2001 after he got into an altercation with a San Diego Padres fan and was forced to resign his position. But now he’s making his return to the diamond with a new administration—the Trump administration.

In an email sent to all staff at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tuesday afternoon (a copy of which was shared with The Handbasket by multiple people who received it) employees learned that September 16th would be HHS night at Nationals Park and that Senior Advisor on Human Trafficking in the Administration for Children and Families Kevin Malone would be throwing out the first pitch. It was news to many at HHS that a former baseball executive was serving in this role, and when I posted the news on Bluesky, it was also news to baseball fans that the unpopular former GM had a new gig. After spending time digging into Malone’s whole deal, one thing was clear: He’s just one of a menagerie of wealthy and unqualified administration lackeys who’ve committed their lives to workshopping God. But also President Trump.

As he’s told the story in numerous interviews, after his unceremonious exit from baseball, Malone served as a missionary around the world. In 2009 he visited Thailand with his pastor Francis Chan, and during the trip he and Pastor Chan met with victims of child sex trafficking. Malone was confronted with the horrible reality for the first time and already knew he wanted to focus his ministerial work: he believed he found his calling in working with American victims of child sex trafficking. The owner of a Los Angeles Mercedes-Benz dealership at the time, Malone and his family picked up and moved to Las Vegas to battle sin. “When God calls, you need to listen,” he said.  

In a recent appearance on Newt Gingrich’s podcast (Yes, New Gingrich is still alive) (Yes, he has a podcast) (No, I don’t know who listens to it), Malone tried to explain how his experience as a baseball scout and executive prepared him for the task of combatting child sex trafficking.

If this response prompts more questions than answers: same. 

In explaining the rise of his new-found purpose, Malone mentioned some wealthy guys—his words, not mine—willing to throw money behind the cause. He’s founded three organizations: Protect The P.A.T.H. (People Against Trafficking Humans), the United States Institute Against Human Trafficking, and kidsNOTforSale.org. In videos and posts online, Malone speaks passionately about ending child sex trafficking and alludes to working with lawmakers in Nevada to spread awareness of the problem and create greater protections, but there’s not much evidence of tangible work.

In 2022, kidsNOTforSale did a PSA and billboard awareness campaign in Las Vegas with former Raiders quarterback Derek Carr. No public actions have been reported since then, and there’s no readily available record of the organization lobbying legislators on policy. The Protect The P.A.T.H. website lists Malone as the only contact and provides very little information about what the organization does. And in the “Take Action” section of the United States Institute Against Human Trafficking website, they offer a few educational videos and information on how to join their “Abolitionist” group “to make our movement viral.” They do appear to have an active podcast.

Malone’s newest role isn’t his first foray into government. In 2019 during Trump’s first term, he was appointed to the President’s Public-Private Partnership Advisory Council to End Human Trafficking. Tim Ballard, the founder of Operation Underground Railroad and inspiration for the film “Sound of Freedom” about a former government agent who goes on a mission to rescue children from sex trafficking, also served on the council. (Ballard was ousted from his organization in 2023 after internal complaints of sexual misconduct. He was hit with a lawsuit for alleged human trafficking, which was later dismissed.)

During his chat with Gingrich, Malone talked about his previous post. 

“I mean, you can take all the presidents together and they didn't do half of what President Trump did in his first term in the regards of fighting human trafficking and providing resources to victims,” Malone said, “So, you know, the public-private partnership, it was interesting because, you know, partnerships are absolutely essential because no single agency or organization can end trafficking alone.”

He made no mention of Trump’s connections to the deceased convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, nor offered any concrete examples of Trump’s achievements in fighting trafficking.

In that conversation he alluded to his reputation of being “an aggressive guy,” hearkening back to his past in Major League Baseball. As General Manager of the Montreal Expo’s in the early 90’s, he became infamous for a fire sale following the 1994 season strike during which he “dramatically gut” the team by selling off some of their best players. (Expos fans have still not forgiven him.) When he first became the Dodger’s General Manager in 1998, Malone immediately declared in an interview with sports radio host Jim Rome “there’s a new sheriff in town,” immediately pissing people off.  Last year he published a book called “Scouting the Enemy: From Running Major League Baseball Teams to Ending Child Sex Trafficking,” in which he recounts him and his brother being physically abused by their father as kids, his own confrontational and sometimes violent past. 

“I've been sucker punched at bars. I've been kicked out of fraternities and sororities. I guess I probably had a chip on my shoulder. I always felt I was fighting an uphill battle. I was small, the underdog but, not in my mind,” he writes. “My preferred person to fight was anyone willing. I had all this pent-up emotion inside to prove myself one way or another. I poured it into baseball and, when that wasn't enough, took it out on others.” Eventually, it was this aggression that led to his forced exit from baseball.

A few months after publishing the book (which currently has no reviews on Amazon), he spoke at two events in Jackson, Tennessee, including one speech at a Christian college called Union University. His speech, according to a story from The Jackson Post, touched on his work against child sex trafficking, but also intimated that the consumption of porn directly leads to this type of abuse.

“And God told us as Christians to fight injustices in this world, and injustices don’t happen without victims,” Malone reportedly said. “There are a lot of children in our world today who have been made victims by violent men.” According to the Jackson Post report, “Malone’s purpose at chapel with a room of a few hundred college students seemed as if his primary goal in the morning was to do his part in steering them away from being addicted to pornography.”

Malone’s extreme Christianity has gotten him off track before. In 1995 while he was General Manager of the Montreal Expos (the franchise that later became the Washington Nationals) he told ChristianWeek magazine that baseball was once special, “But the game has changed. Now it's about power, money and greed. Today, the game is controlled by Satan.”

He’s also involved with a number of Christian Zionist organizations—AKA Christian groups devoted to supporting Israel so that Jews can return to the land in preparation for the second coming of Christ. Malone is actively involved with the Christian groups Hope for Israel and HaYovel, as well as World Emunah, a social services organization in Israel. Hope for Israel is a “discipleship and service-oriented ministry in the heart of Jerusalem whose main aim is to bring the hope of Messiah back to Israel,” according to their website. HaYovel facilitates “faith-based volunteering” in Israel in which participants can plant trees, harvest grapes, prune vines, and tour the country to help them “Fulfill biblical prophecy.”

As for what Malone plans to do with his position as HHS Senior Advisor on Human Trafficking, he got into that very briefly with Gingrich. He talked about working with the Department of Homeland Security to bring down the number of trafficking victims which is “off the charts” despite the fact that DHS itself says “no reliable estimate of human trafficking within the United States.” Malone also has high hopes for AI used to “detect grooming behavior” and wants to invest in ethical technology. “We’re living in Sodom and Gomorrah,” he told Gingrich. 

After Malone’s resignation in 2001, Robert Daly, a top Dodgers executive at the time, said ''We're looking for an organization that concentrates on baseball—winning baseball. No person can be bigger than the organization.'' And with the splashy announcement of his upcoming first pitch at Nationals Park, Malone himself has become the story once more. Play ball.