Brad Parscale

Parscale moved to Orange County, California following graduation from college, to work for his father, then the CEO of animation-software company called Electric Image;[15] Parscale worked as the sales manager, at a salary of $95,000.[16] The company filed for bankruptcy in August 2002, and Parscale and his parents returned to San Antonio.[16] Electric Image animation software was reconstituted as Electric Image Animation System 3D (eias3d.com).

In San Antonio, Parscale became a website developer.[13] in October 2005 he incorporated his website business,[16] which mostly produced simple websites for brick-and-mortar businesses in the area.[15] Parscale has said that he started the company with an initial investment of $500;[17][18] real estate records show that he owned three San Antonio homes at the time.[16]

After Parscale worked on several projects with graphic and web designer Jill Giles (who had her own small firm), the company Giles–Parscale was formed in July 2011.[16] In early 2013, Parscale was also running another company, DevDemon, which marketed add-ons for web development; in a technology investment partnership (Turner Parscale LLC);[19] and was involved in a physical therapy business.[20] By May 2015, Giles-Parscale owned a 18,000 square foot building and had 46 employees and 800 clients.[17]

In April 2012, the company was hired to build a website for Trump International Realty, after a deliberately low bid of $10,000.[21] That led to further work in the Trump family: Trump Winery, the Eric Trump Foundation,[4] and Caviar Complexe, Melania Trump’s line of skin-care products.[16] It also led to the firm's extensive work for the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign, and Parscale becoming the campaign's digital director (see below).

In mid-2017, Parscale spun off his political work to a new company, Parscale Strategy, and relocated that business to Florida.[22] In August 2017, the remaining company operations (commercial and consumer) were purchased by CloudCommerce, a penny-stock firm, in a deal valued at $9 million in stock,[23][24] and were renamed Parscale Digital.[22] CloudCommerce also acquired San Antonio-based Parscale Media, but not Florida-based Parscale Strategy; Parscale became a member of the CloudCommerce board of directors.[24]

In June 2018, Giles Design Bureau was broken out as a separate entity, run by Giles, with a staff of 15; Giles remained a major stockholder in CloudCommerce.[24]

In early 2015, Parscale's firm, Giles-Parscale, was hired to create a website for Donald Trump's exploratory campaign, charging $1,500 for the work.[25] Between October and December 2015, Giles-Parscale was paid $21,000 by the Trump campaign.[26]

Through the entire election cycle, Giles-Parscale was paid $94 million by the Trump campaign.[27] In 2016, Parscale was named the campaign's digital director.[28]

Parscale used social media advertisements with an experiment based strategy of different face expressions, font colors and slogans like "Basket of Deplorables."[29] Parscale's specific roles included heading the oversight of the digital advertising, TV advertising, small dollar fundraising, direct mail, political and advertising budget, and was also the RNC liaison working daily with Katie Walsh who was then the Republican National Committee's chief of staff. He was also the head of the data science and research, which included polling. Parscale claims that after realizing Virginia and Ohio were unable to be swayed, he decided to re-allocate the campaign resources to Michigan and Wisconsin. This shift included the decision to send Trump to Michigan and Wisconsin and focus efforts heavily on the two states. This decision was instrumental in winning the election as Trump won both the historically democratic states.

Parscale heavily used employees from Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other platforms for the campaign advertisements and embedded them on his staff to navigate the Facebook, Twitter, and Google platforms so that his staff would utilize all capabilities of these platforms.[30][31] He denied having any assistance linked to Russia.[30][31] Parscale did not have data scientists or any digital team during the Republican Primary and did much of the social media advertising from his home.[32]

Parscale was able to utilize Facebook advertising to directly target individual voters in swing states.[32] Parscale later said that he was able to target specific universes (audiences) who cared about infrastructure and promoted Trump and his message to build back up the crumbling American infrastructure. Although he hired Cambridge Analytica to assist with microtargeting and Cambridge Analytica stated that it was the key to Trump's victory, Parscale denied that he gained assistance from the firm because he thinks that Cambridge Analytica's use of psychographics doesn't work.[31] Parscale also said: "I understood early that Facebook was how Donald Trump was going to win. Twitter is how he talked to the people. Facebook was going to be how he won."[30]

The Trump campaign initially had solely Donald Trump's personal funding to back his campaign. Parscale set up a major grassroots campaign on Facebook that brought in funding quickly from across the U.S.[33] Parscale attributed the success of his vast social media presence to using the assistance offered by companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Google. He said that because the Trump campaign intended to spend $100 million on social media, companies in that area were prepared to assist the campaign in using that money effectively.[33] The Washington Post later wrote that, in light of Trump's narrow electoral margin, Parscale could "justifiably take credit" for his victory.[34]

Parscale speaking at an event (the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit) in December 2018

The database of voter information that drove Parscale's social media advertising campaigns in the 2016 election was dubbed "Project Alamo", a name which eventually encompassed all of the associated fundraising and political advertising efforts.[35]

On February 27, 2018, President Trump named Parscale his 2020 re-election campaign manager.[36]

On March 2, 2018, Parscale founded "firewall company" Red State Data and Digital to allow working with the America First super PAC during the midterm elections, which Parscale claimed does not violate election rules prohibiting coordination between a campaign and a super PAC. Red State received more than $900,000 in business from America First Action.[37][38]

On August 30, 2019, CNN reported that a pro-Trump super PAC paid thousands to a company owned by Parscale's wife.[39]

In March 2020, The New York Times reported that Parscale was paying $15,000 a month to Lara Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the wife and girlfriend respectively of Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., for campaign work.[40]

On April 29, 2020, CNN reported that Trump was angry with Parscale about low poll numbers.[41]

In June 2020, while working to get supporters to an upcoming campaign rally with President Trump in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Parscale reported that he had received over 800,000 requests for tickets to the event, according to The Washington Times.[42] Despite this claim, many seats remained empty at the 19,000-seat arena.[43] The Tulsa fire marshal estimated that fewer than 6,200 attended.[44] In December 2020 Politico named Parscale's predictions for the size of the rally among "the most audacious, confident and spectacularly incorrect prognostications about the year".[45]

On July 15, 2020, Trump tweeted that Parscale would be replaced in the role of campaign manager by Bill Stepien, but that Parscale would continue to advise the campaign.[46]

Parscale's spending decisions for the Trump campaign were questioned after his departure as campaign manager. By that time, more than $800,000 had been spent by the Trump campaign on boosting Parscale's social media pages, and $39 million was given to two companies owned by Parscale. The campaign also purchased ads which appeared to be intended to please Trump himself, including more than $1 million in ads for Washington, D.C. media market. According to The New York Times, many of the Trump campaign's spending specifics were "opaque".[47]

On September 30, 2020, Parscale provided a statement to Politico announcing that he was "stepping away from my company and any role in the campaign for the immediate future to focus on my family and get help dealing with the overwhelming stress"; campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh confirmed the statement.[2][3]

Following election day, Parscale criticized the Trump campaign's strategy following his removal as campaign manager. He argued that Trump's response to the COVID-19 pandemic ultimately led to his defeat, but echoed Trump's claims of voter fraud as a factor.[48] In the time following the election, Parscale has also turned to real estate flipping, while restarting his political consulting firm and forming a data analysis startup.[49]

On September 27, 2020, Parscale was hospitalized after his wife told Fort Lauderdale police that he had guns and he was threatening to harm himself; upon arriving at Parscale's home, an officer reported that "Bradley’s speech was slurred as though he was under the influence of an alcoholic beverage and he seemed to be crying."[51][52][53] Officers seized 10 firearms from the home and reported that Parscale's wife had cuts and bruises on her arms and face, which she said Parscale had inflicted earlier in the week, though she later said that her statements had been "misconstrued" and denied that Parscale had been violent toward her.[3][53] Parscale was detained and involuntarily committed and psychiatrically examined under terms of the Baker Act.[54] Politico reported that the couple had told people they were experiencing continuing distress since their twin children died prematurely in 2016.[55]