Trump Claims of Campaign Strength Evaporate With Parscale Ouster
Trump Claims of Campaign Strength Evaporate With Parscale Ouster
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump has insisted for weeks that he is in good shape to win a second term in November. But on Wednesday, the president acknowledged the trouble he is facing by reshaping his campaign leadership, ousting manager Brad Parscale.
Trump announced in a Wednesday night Facebook post that Bill Stepien, the former deputy campaign manager, will now lead his re-election operation. Parscale, who had led the campaign since 2018, will remain as senior adviser for digital and data.
The shake-up comes with Trump’s political standing battered by the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 137,000 people in the U.S. and sunk the economy, once the pillar of the president’s case for re-election.
Trump has received poor ratings for his handling of the pandemic, as well as his response to nationwide protests over police brutality, sending his poll numbers into a tailspin.
Several polls released Wednesday showed Trump lagging behind his November opponent Joe Biden by double digits, with one showing that in stewardship of the economy -- the one area where he had previously led the Democratic nominee -- he was now trailing as well.
Trump announced hours later that Parscale was out. His son-in-law, senior adviser, Jared Kushner, had delivered the news to Parscale, who was in the White House for meetings on Wednesday, people familiar with the matter said.
Stepien is an ally of Kushner, who is seen as guiding the president’s political organization. Stepien was at the White House this week for multiple meetings, including with senior staff, as well as planning discussions on the Republican convention, according to the people.
“I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been promoted to the role of Trump campaign manager,” Trump said in a statement. “Brad Parscale, who has been with me for a very long time and has led our tremendous digital and data strategies, will remain in that role, while being a senior adviser to the campaign.”
In Stepien, Trump is turning to a seasoned political operative to help right the ship. He previously served as White House political director and as a top adviser to former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Parscale, by contrast, had never run a major political campaign before being asked to lead Trump’s 2020 operation.
Christie fired Stepien amid the Bridgegate scandal but he was never charged and denied involvement in the 2013 plan to shut down access lanes to the George Washington Bridge to punish a political opponent.
A change at the top of Trump’s campaign was viewed as inevitable after a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 20. Trump had hoped to use the gathering to jump-start his campaign following months of coronavirus-related lock downs. But only 6,200 people filed into the 19,000-seat BOK Center, after Parscale had boasted of about 1 million sign-ups. Trump had repeated the sign-up figure during a Fox News interview.
Kushner began excluding Parscale from some decisions last month. He swapped chief operating officers without telling Parscale following Tulsa, installing Jeff DeWit and Michael Glassner, who had previously overseen the rallies.
The announcement of Parscale’s ouster came on the same day Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said he tested positive for Covid-19 after attending the rally.
The failed rally provided fodder for Parscale’s enemies, who have accused him of using his position to enrich himself and build his profile -- both no-nos in Trump’s world. Parscale has denied he was abusing his position.
Over the past few weeks, as his poll numbers slipped, Trump brought back some of his 2016 campaign aides onto his current staff, including Stepien and former spokesman Jason Miller, who is now a senior adviser. Stepien is a respected member of the staff who keeps a low profile, according to people familiar with the matter.
“Stepien gives donors and operatives comfort that the campaign will run on all cylinders,” said Republican strategist Bryan Lanza, who served as deputy communications director for Trump’s 2016 campaign.
There have been deliberations about more additions, including a campaign chair, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
Trump shook up his campaign leadership on multiple occasions during his first run for the White House, and downplayed the latest move as a sign his chances of winning in 2020 have shrunk. “This one should be easier,” he wrote in his announcement of Stepien’s hire.
Asked at the White House on Tuesday whether he considers himself an underdog, Trump said, “No, I don’t. I think we have a really good poll numbers.”
But Trump received a dose of bad news in Wednesday’s polls.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released showed Trump losing to Biden by 11 percentage points nationwide. A separate survey conducted by Quinnipiac University showed just 45% of registered voters approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, and gave Biden a 5 point edge. More than six in ten voters said Trump was hurting rather than helping the pandemic response, according to the Quinnipiac poll.
Parscale had been under fire for months. The campaign and affiliated organizations have paid millions of dollars to ad-buying, data, and consulting firms owned by Parscale, according to public documents compiled by a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Dire Warnings
Parscale, web director of the San Antonio, Texas-based firm Giles-Parscale, advertised Trump’s campaign on websites and on social media in 2016. His only previous political work had been for a tax-assessor candidate in San Antonio who lost.
In early June, Trump summoned Parscale and other top political advisers to the White House after polls showed declining support. Kushner participated in the meeting, as did Stepien and Trump’s top pollster, Tony Fabrizio.
Outside advisers had also delivered increasingly dire warnings to Trump about his political standing.
“He is losing,” Christie said of Trump in a June 28 appearance on ABC News’ “This Week.” “And if he doesn’t change course, both in terms of the substance of what he’s discussing and the way that he approaches the American people, then he will lose.”
Dan Eberhart, a major GOP donor, said he was glad Stepien was coming in. “Brad Parscale is the Corey Lewandowski of the cycle,” he said, referring to Trump’s campaign manager in the 2016 primaries. “He was used as a starting pitcher but someone else is being brought in for the most important innings.”
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