Bill Stepien, the manager of the Trump reelection campaign, reportedly took a 33% pay cut when he took the promotion, a sign of ongoing financial turmoil within the campaign, according to HuffPost reporting.
Stepien took the position of campaign manager after Brad Parscale’s Death Star exploded. Under Parscale’s leadership, Trump fell nine points behind Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in polling–a deficit Trump has minimally chipped into.
While campaign manager, Parscale paid his own firm $39.3 million from the Trump campaign since January 2017 and more than $7 million dollars through the republican National Committee. Parscale paid himself $15,000 per month in addition to a salary and profits from his private companies; Stepien saw his fees cut from $15,000 to $10,000 per month.
Parscale didn’t just line his pockets with donors’ money; he’s stuffed his real estate portfolio, he bought two condos in Florida for a total of $2 million–in cash. He also bought a $2.4 million estate in Broward County.
Others benefited by Parscale’s largess, as well: Lara Trump, the one-time local television news producer daughter-in-law of President Trump, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the strangely-hyper step-Oedipal personification of Don, Jr., were also on the campaign payroll for $15,000 to compensate them for their… um… “talents.”
While Trump claims his campaign is very well funded, the Biden campaign crushed Trump’s fundraising in August, with Biden getting outraising Trump by $156 million. Trump’s campaign has largely been media-silent in the past two months, with very few television ad buys and spending minimally online.
Trump’s campaign seems to have odd spending habits. It spent more than $37,000 in rent in August for space in Trump Tower in New York City; the campaign, however, is based in Arlington, Virginia. Additionally, since Trump took office, the campaign and the RNC has spent nearly $7 million at Trump properties and on Trump products–including the famed Trump Bottled Water.
Stepien’s salary cut, however, doesn’t reflect well on other salaries paid to Trump campaign staffers. Deputy communications director Erin Perrine makes $160,000, $40,000 more than Stepien–and more than anyone on the Biden campaign. But even more curious is the $240,000 paid annually to Katrina Pierson as a “senior advisor.”
How saving $30,000 through the end of the year on Stepien’s salary will benefit the Trump campaign has yet to be seen, particularly when the campaign seems fine with lining the pockets of Trump’s family and friends.