How Trump's ex-campaign manager allowed Jared Kushner to 'rule from afar'

Jared Kushner.
(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Brad Parscale is no longer President Trump's re-election campaign manager, but he had some real influence within President Trump's inner circle for some time, New York reports. That's largely because of his close relationship with the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who apparently has a lot of detractors within the campaign.

Sources told New York that Parscale's true value to the campaign wasn't so much his skills as a political operative, but rather the fact that he seemed to always have Kushner's back. "Brad was willing to do whatever Jared said keep quiet about it," a senior White official told New York. "Brad was willing to get yelled at by the president and not say, 'Well, actually this was Jared's decision.' And Jared got to rule from afar because Brad would do whatever he said."

In turn, the source said, Parscale made a lot of money "and got to live by the pool in Florida. It was almost like this weird mutual partnership, whether they knew it or not."

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But even if Parscale wasn't around, it seems unlikely Kushner would have struggled to grasp the reins of the campaign. Ultimately, Parscale got demoted and was replaced by Bill Stepien, who is also considered a Kushner ally. Per New York, "Kushner's influence is so total that, even when his proxy is removed, he's just replaced by yet another proxy." Read more at New York.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.