Today, Donald Trump made the unsurprising announcement that he was running for President in 2020, despite facing stiff competition from the People’s Champion. Yet while it’s not a surprise a sitting President would run for a second term (Lyndon B. Johnson being the only sitting president in recent memory who hasn’t done so), what is a surprise is who he chose as his (first) campaign manager — Brad Parscale.
If Parscale’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he was Trump’s Facebook guy. Parscale went from selling the Trump organization websites for $1,500 a pop, via his web development agency Giles-Parscale, to working with secretive data firm Cambridge Analytica and engaging in a Facebook campaign, collecting a cool $94 million in the process. In the process, he’s come under scrutiny by Robert Mueller and has struggled with the revelation that Facebook charged the Trump campaign substantially less for Facebook ads. Parscale may not be done with the Russian investigation, especially since Mueller issued indictments for several Russian nationals involved in efforts to derail the 2016 election.
Similarly, one can argue that being Trump’s campaign manager isn’t exactly an honor. Paul Manafort and Corey Lewandowski both served as campaign managers before being booted over allegations of money laundering and violence against women, respectively, and the campaign ended with Kellyanne Conway running things. How long will Parscale last? We’ll find out as 2020 campaign season approaches.