Trump Appears To Be In For 2020 Run, Announces Campaign Manager
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- It appears President Donald Trump is already thinking way down the road.
The president all but confirmed Tuesday that he will run for re-election in 2020, naming Brad Parscale as his campaign manager.
A longtime digital marketing strategist, Parscale is plenty familiar with the president, having worked for the Trump Organization and then as part of the 2016 campaign. He continues to lead digital strategies for the Republican National Committee.
"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, the president's son, said in a statement.
Added Jared Kushner, senior advisor and assistant to the president, "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."
Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna McDaniel agreed.
"President Trump is delivering on his promises for a stronger more prosperous country. More jobs, more take home pay, historic judicial appointments, and less burdensome regulations on our economy are already lifting all Americans and is exactly why we need to keep fighting to make America great," McDaniel said. "We're committed to continuing this fight for our country by President Trump's side and I'm thrilled Brad will help lead the effort."
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Parscale has long been close with the Trump family, a priority for the president as he begins planning his re-election strategy, according to a person familiar with the campaign planning but not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions.
Starting in 2011, Parscale had done some web design work for the Trump family, including the president's real estate firm and his son Eric Trump's charity, before Kushner hired him for the campaign.
The two men helped craft the 2016 team's digital strategy, which has been widely credited for helping Trump pull off his upset victory. Parscale also established close ties with Eric Trump and his wife, Lara, who in turn was hired by Parscale's Texas-based digital firm.
Working with Kushner, Parscale and Katie Walsh, then the chief of staff of the Republican National Committee, served as de-facto campaign managers, overseeing nearly all aspects of campaign.
In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" last year, Parscale described how a team that grew to 100 people created 50,000 to 60,000 ads on Facebook daily to reach different swaths of Trump supporters to maximize support and online donations.
Trump has prioritized loyalty in his next campaign after feeling burned by some of his previous campaign staffers, according to multiple people familiar with his thinking. Trump has angrily denounced and publicly marginalized Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, whom he blames for smearing the president's reputation with his own entanglements to Russia. Manafort is now facing charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller on money laundering and bank fraud relating to his past work on behalf of the Ukrainian government.
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And Trump later soured on a subsequent campaign force, Steve Bannon, who drew the president's wrath inside the White House for taking too much of the spotlight and, later, portraying his family in a negative light in interveriews with "Fire and Fury" author Michael Wolff.
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Trump's campaign remains based in New York, with its headquarters just floors below the president's penthouse in Trump Tower, and Lara Trump has become, in many ways, the face of the early days of the president's re-election campaign. She has appeared in a series of online news videos meant to be an alternative from mainstream media outlets and, alongside longtime staffer Michael Glassner, has helped steer Trump's initial fundraising efforts and schedule his signature campaign rallies.
She and her husband, key members of Trump's first campaign, are expected to play an even larger role for 2020. Kushner also has been discussed as someone to return to leading the re-election effort, according to the person familiar with campaign strategy.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
