President Donald Trump is essentially confirming his bid for reelection by tapping a veteran of 2016 as his campaign manager to oversee the effort.
The president who stunned the world with his 2016 victory is tapping a veteran of his successful campaign effort to run his 2020 bid, elevating former digital director Brad Parscale, according to a new report.
Trump’s 2020 moves come as his calls for changes to gun laws and regulations are already hitting snags, and after he got a bounce in a daily tracking poll.
Parscale’s role helming the 2020 effort was first broken by the Drudge Report.
The site billed the story as a world exclusive, coming 980 days before the election.
President Donald Trump is tapping a veteran of his successful 2016 campaign effort to run his 2020, as he prepares for his reelection effort
‘The advanced planning for the 2020 race begins,’ Trump’s reelection campaign said as it announced the decision.
Parscale served as Trump’s digital director for the 2016 campaign, where he oversaw online ads, social media, and TV purchases.
After the election, he helped launch America First Policies, which promotes Trump and his agenda from outside the White House.
According to a statement released by the Trump campaign, ‘In addition to focusing on building its infrastructure for the 2020 race, the Trump Campaign will be engaged in the 2018 midterm elections this year, providing candidates with general support, endorsements, and rallying the support of the political grassroots by engaging Trump supporters in districts and states.’
The campaign sent out a statement from Eric Trump, the president’s son who helps run the Trump Organization.
‘Brad is an amazing talent and was pivotal to our success in 2016. He has our family’s complete trust and is the perfect person to be at the helm of the campaign,’ Eric Trump said.
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is a senior advisor to Trump working in the White House, added: ‘Brad was essential in bringing a disciplined technology and data-driven approach to how the 2016 campaign was run. His leadership and expertise will be help build a best-in-class campaign.’
Kushner also helped oversee the campaign’s digital operations.
As early as October 2017, Parscale already told ’60 Minutes’ he was currently working on President Trump’s 2020 effort.
He was among several top campaign officials to send out retweets in the final weeks of the campaign that turned out to be Russian bots that originated from a notorious troll farm in St. Petersburg.
He retweeted a post from @Ten_GOP – which posed as an official state party site.
Trump’s Digital Director Brad Parscale, arrives at the Trump Tower for meetings with US President-elect Donald Trump, in New York on November 17, 2016. Trump reported wants him to helm his 2020 campaign
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The Trump campaign announced the move on a day Trump railed against the Russia probe
The Trump campaign announced the move on a day Trump railed against the Russia probe
‘Thousands of deplorables chanting to the media: ‘Tell The Truth!’ RT if you are also done w/ biased Media!’ read the tweet.
Trump invoked the 2020 elections during a Cincinnati trip to the Sheffer Corporation, saying Democrats would get punished in 2018 and 2020 if they don’t get behind him.
‘They would rather see Trump do badly than our country do well,’ Trump said, referencing the State of the Union speech. ‘They were like death. And un-American. Somebody said treasonous. I mean, yeah. I guess. Why not?’
Trump’s big personnel decision comes weeks after the RNC announced it had raised a record $132.5 million last year, a record for an ‘off-year’ election.
That amount doubles the the Democratic National Committee’s $65.9 million fundraising haul.
The Trump campaign sent out a statement from White House advisor Jared Kushner lauding Parscale
Trump’s warned against complacency in the elections at his speech at CPAC last week.
‘So people are sitting there, and they’re saying, ‘Oh, we just had that great victory. Eh, let’s not vote. Let’s go to a movie. We’re the Republican Party, we’re going to do great.’ And then they end up losing,’ Trump said.
‘So you got to keep up the enthusiasm. Now what happens, by the way, they lose. And then you have the presidential election coming up again, and you clobber them because everybody gets off their ass and they get out and they work. Right?’ he said.
‘And they work. And they work and work and work. And you end up winning the Presidency again. And we should do that — hopefully we’re going to do that very easily,’ Trump said.
Trump’s approval hit 50 percent in the latest Rasmussen daily tracking poll. But Polls from CNN and USA TODAY/Suffolk University both show Trump at his lowest level of support for each survey, at 35 per cent and 38 per cent respectively.
Parscale voluntarily testified before the House Intelligence Committee in its Russia probe last July, when he rejected the idea that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has indicted 13 Russians who working out of a ‘troll farm’ seeking to influence the U.S. elections by staging rallies, posing as Americans, and putting up controversial online posts.
‘The only collaboration I am aware of in the Trump digital campaign was with staff provided to the campaign by Facebook, Google and Twitter’ Parscale said in a statement. ‘Those experts in digital marketing worked side-by-side with our teams from Giles-Parscale, the Republican National Committee, and Cambridge Analytica to run a professional and winning campaign.’