The biggest recipient of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign war chest is a little-known San Antonio-based digital marketing company, with no experience in political advertising but plenty in working for Trump and his family on personal web projects.



Trump’s presidential campaign spent $11m in August on the services of Giles-Parscale, a web firm that previously worked mostly for local businesses and restaurants and made revenue of just $3.5m for the whole of 2015.

The company, run by Brad Parscale a 40-year-old, 6ft 8in former basketball player from Kansas, is by far the biggest recipient of Donald J Trump for President Inc funds, having collected more than a third of total spending in August according to Federal Election Commission figures released this week. The previous month the firm was paid $8.3m, almost half of the Trump campaign’s total monthly spend.

Great meeting with our next POTUS. I have the great honor to work for @realDonaldTrump daily #TrumpTrain @DanScavino pic.twitter.com/eXgLsA4PIq — Brad Parscale (@parscale) June 8, 2016

Parscale, who Trump promoted to digital director in June after sacking former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, came to Trump’s attention in 2011 when he won a bid to design websites for Trump International Realty. He went on to work on the Trump Winery website and projects for Melania Trump and also helped Trump’s son Eric on a charitable project.

Eric Trump provided a glowing endorsement for Giles-Pascale, published on its website in 2013. “Giles-Parscale is a true class act in every regard and one of the best in the business.”

Parscale, who did not respond to requests for comment, has dismissed suggestions that Trump hired him to run his digital campaign due to his previous relationships with the Trump family.

“I think they hired me for the first couple of pieces, and I kept proving that I had the answers and was able to get things done,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “I earned my way. It wasn’t that they just gave it to me because they liked me.”

However, Trump does not appear to have held a tender process for firms to bid for the contract to build his campaign website. In an interview with the San Antonio Business Journal last year, Parscale said Trump had engaged him to create an explorative website before he officially announced his intention to run for president.

On 17 June 2015 – the day after Trump launched his presidential campaign with a racist attack on Mexicans – the billionaire businessman called Parscale to tell him to create a full presidential campaign website, according to the interview.

“When I was successful, he continued to reward me over and over again, because I worked hard and produced success,” Parscale told Wired.

Parscale, who has described Trump as a “really great guy, and his kids are amazing”, said the “opportunity to work on a presidential campaign is like designing for the Super Bowl”.

The Trump deal has transformed Giles-Parscale, which Parscale runs with co-founder Jill Giles. The firm had 60 employees before it started working on the Trump campaign, and is now in the midst of a recruitment drive to hire an additional 100 people as the campaign heats up in the countdown to the 8 November election.