President Donald Trump has tapped Brad Parscale, the digital media director of his 2016 campaign, to be his 2020 reelection campaign manager, according to a source with knowledge of the hiring.
The Drudge Report, a conservative website run by Matt Drudge, initially hyped the announcement by saying that Trump had a "shock announcement."
"**WORLD EXCLUSIVE** TUE FEB 27 2018 10:05 AM ET** Just one year into his presidency, Trump will stun the political world by announcing he is running for re-election in 2020. Digital guru Brad Parscale will be named campaign manager, DRUDGE REPORT has learned... Developing..." the Drudge Report tweeted.
**WORLD EXCLUSIVE** TUE FEB 27 2018 10:05 AM ET** Just one year into his presidency, Trump will stun the political world by announcing he is running for re-election in 2020. Digital guru Brad Parscale will be named campaign manager, DRUDGE REPORT has learned... Developing...
— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) February 27, 2018
While it was previously known Trump planned to run for reelection, CNN reported it was "unusual" for a sitting president to hire a campaign manager so early into the first term.
CNN noted Parscale's role in the 2016 campaign went beyond the tasks typically associated with being digital director, and the political strategist has remained closely tied to the president since the election.
Parscale has remained an active force in his political operation -- America First -- since the President stepped into the White House. Parscale's Florida-based firm, Parscale Strategy, has a contract with the Republican National Committee to, among other things, help grow its data base of small donors.
Parscale never worked in politics before joining the Trump campaign in 2015. He knew the candidate and his family from working for the Trump Organization for several years designing websites and helping develop digital strategy for Trump businesses.
Even as Trump went through three campaign managers during his tumultuous presidential bid, Parscale, a close associate of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, was a constant, quiet presence.
Parscale's formal title during the Trump 2016 campaign was digital director, but behind the scenes he grew into much more: directing campaign spending on television ads as well as digital, building a small dollar donor operation, and having significant influence on the overall campaign working closely with then-Republican National Committee chief of staff Katie Walsh and the RNC get out the vote operation.
Parscale was instrumental in bringing Facebook employees onto the campaign to diminish the advantage gap of Hillary Clinton's digital team, thereby promoting Trump while tearing down Clinton. Trump was not happy with the digital director early in the 2016 campaign for the way he spent money on digital advertisements, calling it "mumbo-jumbo digital stuff." While Parscale said he was initially "crushed" by Trump's reaction to his work, he said the president-elect ultimately thanked him after the campaign and made it clear he came to understand the power of digital advertising.