Brad Parscale is known for his innovative work using social media to engineer a win for Donald Trump during the 2016 election.
There is a CBS 60 Minutes interview and a PBS FRONTLINE interview with Parscale where he explains specifically how he engineered a win for Trump in 2016.
The videos below offer more information about him. For more, find Brad Parscale on Twitter or his website.
While some people may disagree with Parscale’s choice to support Trump, he’s been cordially invited and interviewed by reporters from the full spectrum of news agencies because of his personable nature, openness, and high-functioning ability to understand digital communications campaigning.
Despite Parscale’s success at helping Trump and the GOP, in Jul 2020 he was reportedly demoted because of poor rally turnout at Tulsa. [Source: The Guardian, 16 Jul 2020]
As of September 2020, it is reported that Parscale is going through a very rough patch in his life.
Brad Parscale 2.0
Since 2016, there has been a complete upgrade to the Republican campaign digital media machine – refined and designed by Parscale. Below is an excerpt from an article in The Atlantic that describes the post-2016 GOP operations center.
The campaign is run from the 14th floor of a gleaming, modern office tower in Rosslyn, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. Glass-walled conference rooms look out on the Potomac River. Rows of sleek monitors line the main office space. Unlike the bootstrap operation that first got Trump elected—with its motley band of B-teamers toiling in an unfinished space in Trump Tower—his 2020 enterprise is heavily funded, technologically sophisticated, and staffed with dozens of experienced operatives. One Republican strategist referred to it, admiringly, as “the Death Star.”
Presiding over this effort is Brad Parscale, a 6-foot-8 Viking of a man with a shaved head and a triangular beard. As the digital director of Trump’s 2016 campaign, Parscale didn’t become a household name like Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway. But he played a crucial role in delivering Trump to the Oval Office—and his efforts will shape this year’s election.
… Parscale was generally well liked by his colleagues, who recall him as competent and intensely focused. … “Parscale would come in and tell Trump he didn’t need to listen to the polls, because he’d crunched his data and they were going to win by six points,” one former campaign staffer told me.
[Source: “The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President,” The Atlantic, 10 Feb 2020]
Interviews
Below are various interviews with Parscale where he shares his views, insights, and experiences.
Face the Nation (28 Apr 2019)
Full interview: Brad Parscale on “Face the Nation” – Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale joined moderator Margaret Brennan for an interview on April 9, 2019, which did not air due to the preemption on April 12. The full interview will air on the Sunday, April 28 broadcast of “Face the Nation.”
PBS FRONTLINE (29 Nov 2018)
The Facebook Dilemma: Brad Parscale – Watch Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale’s candid, full interview on Facebook and its impact on privacy and democracy in the U.S. and around the world – part of FRONTLINE’s media transparency project for our investigation, “The Facebook Dilemma.”
Bloomberg Technology (27 Jul 2018)
Trump Campaign Manager Says Facebook, Twitter Are Inherently Biased – Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, discusses his strategy for the 2020 presidential election and his views on social media. He speaks with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang on “Bloomberg Technology.” (17 Jul 2018)
CBS News (27 Feb 2018)
Brad Parscale, social media strategist, to head Trump 2020 campaign – Former Trump campaign digital strategist Brad Parscale will be the campaign manager as the president seeks re-election in 2020. WIRED editor-in-chief Nicholas Thompson joins CBSN to discuss the importance of social media in the next campaign.
Web Summit (22 Mar 2018)
Making Marketing Great Again: Inside the Trump 2016 Advertising Campaign – Donald J. Trump’s 2016 election and the campaign built around “Making America Great Again” will live long in the memory. How did the campaign come alive online? Brad Parscale, who served as Digital Media Director for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, took to the stage to share the advertising secrets to electing a US president.
Document History
This document was first posted on 15 Oct 2018 at 8:38 AM. It was updated on 28 Sep 2020 to utilize the new WordPress block layout. The Nov 2018 PBS FRONTLINE and Apr 2019 Face the Nation interviews were added. The featured image was also updated.