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Trump Appoints Digital Media Expert to Run His Re-election Campaign
President Donald Trump has hired Brad Parscale, the digital media director of his 2016 campaign, to run his re-election bid, the campaign announced on Tuesday.
The announcement was initially hyped by The Drudge Report, a website run by Matt Drudge, a conservative figure with considerable influence inside the White House. But it was no surprise that Trump will run for re-election in 2020 — he filed shortly after his 2017 inauguration — but it is unusual for a sitting president to hire a campaign manager three years before the election.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters in June 2017 that Trump was going to run for re-election in 2020.
“Of course, he’s running for re-election,” Sanders said.
Eric Trump, one of the President’s sons, touted Parscale as an “amazing talent” who was “pivotal to our success in 2016.”
“He has our family’s complete trust and is the perfect person to be at the helm of the campaign,” he said in a release from the campaign.
Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law and senior adviser, added that Parscale was “essential in bringing a disciplined technology and data-driven approach to how the 2016 campaign.”
The campaign also said in the announcement that it would be involved in the 2018 midterm election by “providing candidates with general support, endorsements and rallying the support of the political grassroots by engaging Trump supporters in districts and states.”
The midterm will be pivotal for the future of Trump’s presidency. The party in control of the presidency historically suffers sizable losses in the first election after winning the White House. Trump has already begun mentioning that trend in speeches, hoping to spur his supporters to buck history.
Parscale has remained an active force in his political operation — America First — since the President stepped into the White House. Parscale’s Florida-based firm, Parscale Strategy, has a contract with the Republican National Committee to, among other things, help grow its data base of small donors.
Parscale never worked in politics before joining the Trump campaign in 2015. He knew the candidate and his family from working for the Trump Organization for several years designing websites and helping develop digital strategy for Trump businesses.
Even as Trump went through three campaign managers during his tumultuous presidential bid, Parscale, a close associate of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, was a constant, quiet presence.
Parscale’s formal title during the Trump 2016 campaign was digital director, but behind the scenes he grew into much more: directing campaign spending on television ads as well as digital, building a small dollar donor operation, and having significant influence on the overall campaign working closely with then-Republican National Committee chief of staff Katie Walsh and the RNC get out the vote operation.
On digital advertising, Parscale brought Facebook employees into the campaign to better take advantage of social media to promote Trump, and tear down Hillary Clinton.
The unprecedented spending on digital media did not sit well with the candidate. During the campaign, Trump angrily questioned Parscale about how he was spending campaign cash.
“I don’t believe in this mumbo-jumbo digital stuff.” Parscale recalled Trump screaming at him.
“I was crushed actually. It was the first time he had ever, just– I hadn’t even seen him yell at anyone, let alone me,” Parscale told CBS’ “60 Minutes” last year.
Despite getting dressed down, he kept focused on digital media spending.
In fact, during the last week of the campaign, he says he saw data showing movement in Trump’s favor in what were considered likely wins for Clinton, and he pounced, moving money out of Virginia, where he did not think Trump could win, and Ohio, where he felt confident Trump would win.
“I took every nickel and dime I could out of anywhere else. And I moved it to Michigan and Wisconsin. And I started buying advertising, digital, TV,” Parscale told “60 Minutes”.
Parscale has said that after Trump won, the President-elect thanked him and made clear he then understood the power of what he had called “mumbo jumbo digital stuff.”
Parscale has repeatedly insisted he had no knowledge of the Russian operation to influence the 2016 campaign in favor of Trump, and against Clinton. He says that is what he told congressional investigators behind closed doors last year when he went before the Senate and House intelligence committees looking into Russian meddling.
Yet Parscale has gotten caught up in controversial actions Cambridge Analytica, a prominent conservative data firm that he hired to work for the Trump campaign.
In 2016, Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix tried to reach WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to try to help take better political advantage of the hacked Clinton emails. The company says Nix never reached Assange, though CNN reported Nix wanted to create a searchable database of the Clinton emails.
Parscale says he had no knowledge of that, and has insisted the only reason he brought in Cambridge Analytica was because a digital expert he wanted to hire — Matt Oczkowski — was under contract there. Parscale ended up bringing more than a dozen Cambridge Analytica employees into the Trump campaign as analysts. Parscale says the campaign never used Cambridge Analytica’s raw data.
The Trump campaign’s data analytics operation is also under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller, CNN reported in May 2017.
Parscale gave private testimony to the House Intelligence Committee last year as part of its investigation of Russian meddling. (CNN)
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kayode Ariwoola; Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State; Senior Advocates of Nigeria, led by Chief Folake Solanke; lawyers; Judges of various courts; as well as associates on Monday converged on the premises of the Oyo State High Court, Ring Road, Ibadan, pouring encomiums and tributes on late Justice Adegboye Ayinla Gbolagunte, who died on June 24, 2024 at 64.
Justice Gbolagunte, of the Oyo State Judiciary, is survived by his widow, Wuraola Ayoola, and three children.
The children of the late judge, who hailed from Eruwa in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State, are Oladiran, Oladoyin and Oladotun.
At the special valedictory court session presided over by the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Iyabo Yerima, the CJN, who was ably represented by the presiding Judge of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, Justice Hamman Baka, extolled the virtues of the deceased, saying that he was well loved by his colleagues and associates.
He said: “How well one lives in life is what matters.
“We mourn the late Justice Gbolagunte and condole with the family left behind.
“May God repose his soul.”
Speaking through the Oyo State Attorney General and Justice Commissioner, Abiodun Aikomo, Governor Makinde described late Gbolagunte as “a man dedicated to justice in and outside the judiciary.
“His memory will continue to be an inspiration to many of us.
“It is not the length of time, but the quality of it left behind that makes a man.
“The Oyo State Ministry of Justice and indeed Oyo State in general will miss the late jurist.”
On behalf of the Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Chief Solanke, the first female SAN in Nigeria, paid glowing tributes to late Gbolagunte, describing him as a forthright judge who was thorough and dedicated to his work till he breathed his last.
Chief Solanke was represented by Chief Adeniyi Akintola (SAN).
The Chairmen of the Ibadan, Oyo, Ogbomoso and Saki branches of the Nigerian Bar Association in Oyo State also gave their tributes on the well-attended solemn occasion.
Ibrahim Lawal of the Ibadan branch described Gbolagunte as “a scholar on the bench who died in active service to the state and the nation.
“He died as a jurist with character, benevolence, vision, hard work, humility, great tenacity and as a judge who accorded respect to all sundry, especially lawyers who appeared before him, while at the same time, did not take for granted the ethical principles of the legal profession to ensure its universal mobility.”
Lawal used the occasion to lament the harrowing condition in which Judges work, saying that it culminated in the ill-health of late Gbolagunte, resulting in his early death.
To him: “Oyo State Judges are being overworked and overstretched because instead of 40 that they should be, only 20 are doing the work.
“Justice Gbolagunte has gone among them, leaving the whole Judiciary to 19 Judges.
“Therefore, I call on the Oyo State government and all other authorities concerned to consider the plight of My Lords and entire lawyers by appointing more qualified Judges and Magistrates with adequate funding that creates a conducive work atmosphere and promoted speedy dispensation of justice to all manner of men, without fear or favour.”
Jide Olanipekun, Chairman of the Oyo branch, said that the late jurist was “a great person while alive and in death.
“His greatness is very visible because of his steadfastness to the course of justice in his lifetime.
“The trajectory of Justice Gbolagunte’s life showed that he was an epitome of hard work and a man that was determined to carve a niche for himself firstly, as a journalist, then a teacher, and later as a lawyer and Judge of the Oyo State High Court of Justice.”
Adesoji Oke of the Saki branch and Omotayo Olatubosun of the Ogbomoso branch equally poured accolades on the late Judge, describing him as a diligent Judge who was used to sitting at exactly 9am to attend to lawyers, contrary to the practice of some who keep lawyers sitting till 11am or thereabout before sitting, or before asking lawyers to take dates because they would no longer sit for the day.
The first son of Justice Gbolagunte, Oladiran, on behalf of the family, appreciated everybody for the honour done to their father, praying that such occurrence does not occur again in the Oyo State Judiciary.
President Bola Tinubu has signed into law the bill seeking to reintroduce the old national anthem. Senate President Godswill Akpabio announced this at the joint sitting of the senate and house of representatives on Wednesday, May 29.
Akpabio said the president signed the bill into law on Wednesday morning.
The bill received accelerated hearing in both chambers of the National Assembly.
Lillian Jean Williams, a British expatriate who lived in Nigeria during its independence, penned the lyrics for “Nigeria, We Hail Thee,” while Frances Berda composed the music.
The anthem was however dropped in 1978 during Obasanjo’s military administration.
See the lyrics of the anthem below
Nigeria, we hail thee,
Our own dear native land,
Though tribe and tongue may differ,
In brotherhood, we stand,
Nigerians all, and proud to serve
Our sovereign Motherland.
Our flag shall be a symbol
That truth and justice reign,
In peace or battle honour’d,
And this we count as gain,
To hand on to our children
A banner without stain.
O God of all creation,
Grant this our one request,
Help us to build a nation
Where no man is oppressed,
And so with peace and plenty
Nigeria may be blessed.
We supposed the new generation has to go and start learning the old national anthem now.
Ben Affleck believes he was “temporarily insane” when he married Jennifer Lopez and the star actor is reportedly pushing for a divorce after “coming to his senses”.
The pair tied the knot in August 2022, rekindling their romance 20 years after they called off their first engagement.
Less than 2 years later, Ben has allegedly labelled their relationship a “fever dream”.
Page Six reports the actor is keen to end their marriage, claiming the decision to wed was due to “temporary insanity”.
A source told the publication: “If there was a way to divorce on grounds of temporary insanity, he would.”
They added: “He feels like the last two years was just a fever dream, and he’s come to his senses now and understands there is just no way this is going to work.”
People also reported Ben and Jennifer have “very different approaches to fame” leading to clashes.
Although they recently attended Ben’s child Finn’s school production together, the couple are reportedly living separately despite buying a £47million ($60million) mansion together last year.
Divorce rumours were further fuelled when fans noticed that J.Lo liked an Instagram post about “broken relationships”.
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