According to a Friday report from Mother Jones , President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign may be spending “thousands of dollars” on Facebook advertisements promoting campaign manager Brad Parscale’s name and personal business.
As the publication pointed out, the president’s re-election team is investing considerable sums of money in Facebook ads, most of which point to its official website. However, some of the ads link to official pages affiliated with the campaign. Money is reportedly being spent on promoting Black Voices for Trump, Women for Trump, Latinos for Trump, Team Trump, and Vice President Mike Pence.
Some of the advertisements appear to link to Parscale’s personal page and private business. As Mother Jones noted, the page is “different from the others in one respect.”
“While the page specifies that it is the property of the Trump campaign, the only link on its ‘about’ section directs people not to the campaign’s website but instead to Parscale’s private consulting firm, Parscale Strategy.”
In the last month, the campaign has spent $47,357 on ads from Parscale’s personal page.
According to data gathered by the publication, Parscale Strategy and another firm owned by the president’s campaign manager have made tens of millions since 2017.
Some have alleged that Parscale and others are using Trump’s re-election bid to enrich themselves. In an interview last month, former Republican Party strategist Rick Wilson said that the president is being “taken to the cleaners” by members of his campaign.
“These guys are playing him, milking him like a cow. And I never want to see that image in my head again. But they are taking Donald Trump to the cleaners,” Wilson said.
“Brad got a Ferrari. Brad got a Land Rover. Brad got a $2.5 million house on the water in Fort Lauderdale. Brad got a yacht.”
Wilson also noted that the president’s team has spent “hundreds of millions” on social media ad campaigns.
As CBS News reported earlier this month, Parscale did not even vote for Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
In fact, Parscale did not vote at all when Trump ran against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. According to Bexar County, Texas Election Department documents, Parscale — who then lived in San Antonio — voted in the Republican Party’s primaries, but not in the general election.
In a statement, the operative confirmed that he did not cast a ballot for Trump, blaming mail-in voting.
In recent weeks, Trump and his allies have relentlessly attacked Democratic Party politicians for pushing to expand vote-by-mail to registered voters. Democrats have argued that such systems need to be established to protect public health and safety amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump hired Parscale in 2015 — before he officially announced his candidacy. The operative was initially brought on to work on the campaign’s official website, but gradually became part of the president’s inner circle of advisers. He was named 2020 campaign manager in early 2018.
