Brad Parscale served as digital strategist on Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and has remained in his inner circle since. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo Trump picks loyalist Parscale to run 2020 campaign The GOP operative was new to politics before he became Trump's digital strategist in 2016.

President Donald Trump has tapped Republican digital strategist Brad Parscale to be his campaign manager in 2020, opting for a staunch loyalist to run his reelection bid.

Parscale was new to politics when he served as digital strategist on Trump’s 2016 campaign. Yet he has remained close with the president and his family, particularly Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner — a key qualification for a president who prizes loyalty.


The move was first reported on Tuesday by the Drudge Report. A news release announcing the decision included quotes lavishing praise on Parscale from several members of the president’s family.

"Brad is an amazing talent and was pivotal to our success in 2016,” said Trump’s son Eric. “He has our family's complete trust and is the perfect person to be at the helm of the campaign."

During the 2016 campaign, Parscale played a key role in overseeing Trump’s advertising strategy and reaching out to prospective supporters on social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter.

Parscale, 42, did not respond to a request for comment. Over the past year, he has been helping to guide the pro-Trump outside group America First Action. He has also been an occasional guest at the White House and to Trump’s summer home in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he has provided input on political matters to the president.

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Last year, Parscale moved from San Antonio, Texas, to Florida, partly to have easier access to New York City and Washington, where most of the Trump political work takes place.

While the next presidential election is still a ways off, it is clearly on the president’s mind. During recent public appearances, Trump has reiterated his belief that he will win reelection. One Trump friend said that Trump had been contemplating naming Parscale to the campaign manager post for some time.

Still, with the president largely focused on the midterms, the reelection campaign is expected to remain a bare-bones operation for the foreseeable future. Aside from Parscale, it is staffed by a small group of aides that includes Michael Glassner and John Pence, a nephew of Vice President Mike Pence. Parscale announced on Tuesday that Glassner would serve as the campaign’s chief executive officer and Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s spouse, as senior adviser.

It's not surprising that Trump is seeking another term. He filed reelection forms almost immediately after being sworn in and has maintained a campaign office in Trump Tower. He has also been raising tens of millions of dollars for a joint fundraising account that benefits his reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Trump’s 2016 campaign and the digital operation that Parscale oversaw are under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Earlier this month, Mueller indicted 13 Russians for trying to sabotage the last presidential campaign — helping Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton — through fake social media posts and other measures.

The special counsel in his charging documents said Trump campaign staffers were “unwitting” participants in the Russia effort, but he did not name any aides as co-conspirators.

Parscale also testified in a closed-door session last October with the House Intelligence Committee for its Russia probe. In a statement issued last summer, when his invitation first became public, he said that he was “unaware of any Russian involvement in the digital and data operations” of Trump’s campaign, which he said utilized “the exact same digital marketing strategies that are used every day by corporate America.”

“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 added then. “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.”

The Trump campaign’s announcement didn’t go off without a hitch. Kushner’s official White House title as senior adviser and assistant to the president was included in the Parscale news release before a quote from him praising the appointment.

An ethics watchdog group said the language was a potential violation of the Hatch Act, the Depression-era campaign law prohibiting campaigns by government officials.

“It looks like a pretty clear violation,” said Jordan Libowitz, communications director for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

The group late Tuesday filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency charged with monitoring and enforcing the law.

