Jared Kushner has solidified his position as the de facto chief of the Trump reelection effort by replacing Brad Parscale with Bill Stepien as campaign manager, according to multiple strategists familiar with internal discussions.
They said it was also possible that a campaign chairman will be appointed to further bolster an operation that has suffered weeks of poor polls and negative headlines.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are among the names being discussed, while former White House strategist Steve Bannon and senior adviser Jason Miller also have their supporters.
But President Trump’s Twitter announcement that he is moving Parscale aside on Wednesday evening shows where the power lies, at least for now.
“Brad is a Jared guy. Bill is totally a Jared guy,” said a former administration official and veteran of the 2016 campaign. “That’s the key to understanding what is going on.”
John Fredericks, a radio host and advisory board member of Trump 2020, said: “Jared Kushner is now fully in control of the Trump-Pence 2020 reelection campaign. Period. Deal with it.”
The president’s senior adviser and son-in-law has attracted the ire of the more conservative wings and the Bannonite, America First cadre of the Trump coalition. They believe he has dragged the president into more liberal positions — pushing through criminal justice reform, for example — while failing to understand the base of “deplorables” who elected Trump in 2016.
They will have to wait and see how the change of leadership changes the course of the campaign.
On Thursday, Parscale thanked about 200 staffers who gathered at the campaign’s Arlington headquarters for what was an “emotional” address, according to someone present.
Stepien also delivered words of encouragement, telling workers to ignore polls that, in some cases, put Trump more than 10 points behind Joe Biden in national surveys.
He reiterated those thoughts in his first public comments.
“The same media polls that had the world convinced that Hillary Clinton would be elected in 2016 are trying the same trick again in 2020,” he said. “It won’t work.”
But those polls have alarmed many Trump allies, who had become increasingly critical of Parscale and his relative inexperience as a political strategist. In particular, they blamed him for negative coverage of Trump’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally after he claimed a million people had signed up — only for about 6,000 to attend.
“If the election were tomorrow, we’d lose,” said a former administration official, who blamed Kushner’s naivete for many of the problems.
Another strategist said Parscale would be much better suited returning to the digital role he occupied in 2016.
“Brad was out of his league with regard to being a campaign manager, but as a data guy, he understands what the president wants and needs,” he said. “The majority of the folks that have a big responsibility to carry the president over the finish line are very satisfied with Stepien being the new campaign manager.”
While Parscale only entered politics in 2015, running Trump’s data operation, Stepien is a veteran operative whose career began in the 1990s. He worked for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie before joining the 2016 Trump campaign and was appointed White House political director in 2017.
Karen Giorno, Trump 2016 chief Florida strategist, said: “I think he’s a natural fit. He’s well-liked among the Trump base. He understands the importance of [getting out the vote] and the mechanics of campaign operations, which I think is going to help ensure that we reelect President Trump.”
Republican strategists said the new manager would have a big list of problems to fix, from nudging the candidate toward the center and mopping up some independent voters to finding an alternative to mass rallies.
Above all, the campaign needed to do a better job of defining itself, said a consultant who asked that their name be withheld to speak more freely.
“No. 1 thing: decide what the heck they are selling,” he said. “What is the product? Four more years of what?”
A figure close to the campaign said more changes could come soon, with a 50% chance that a chairman is appointed before next month’s convention.
Although Bannon is frequently talked up by his supporters, said the person, his return is not a serious prospect.
Instead, the chairman would need the experience of campaigning for national office or running a state, with the depth and breadth to oversee all aspects of the political, operations, and messaging arms of the reelect.
“You’ve got to have working knowledge and a level of expertise that warrants you being the chairman of an entire reelection campaign for a sitting president,” said the person close to the campaign. “So it’s got to be the stature of a Giuliani or a Huckabee, for anyone in the Trump base or a voter, in general, to accept as a natural addition to the campaign.”
Joel Gehrke contributed to this report.
