U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager is stepping away from the reelection campaign days after he was hospitalized after Florida law enforcement officials said threatened to harm himself.
Brad Parscale, one of Trump’s closest political aides, served as the campaign manager for the reelection effort until July, when he was demoted by Trump. He remained a senior adviser.
Parscale’s break with the Trump campaign was first reported by Politico and was confirmed to the Associated Press Wednesday by a campaign official.
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Former Trump campaign manager hospitalized after self-harm threats
On Sunday, police officers talked Parscale out of his Fort Lauderdale home after his wife called police to say that he had multiple firearms and was threatening to hurt himself. He was hospitalized Sunday under the state’s Baker Act, which allows anyone deemed to be a threat to themselves or others to be detained for 72 hours for psychiatric evaluation.
Parscale’s firm developed websites for Trump’s personal businesses before working on his 2016 presidential campaign, where he was credited with overseeing the campaign’s largely unnoticed — but influential — social media efforts that helped promote Trump to the Oval Office.
He was pushed out of the campaign manager position after a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, had a smaller attendance than projected amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Parscale had spent weeks personally guaranteeing enough people would attend to force a second speech from Trump for a massive overflow crowd after the indoor rally. In the end, no one showed up to that stage.
He was later moved to the campaign’s digital effort, producing ads aimed at helping Trump ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
—With files from Reuters and Global News