Brad Parscale steps down from Trump re-election campaign

Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, is stepping away from the re-election campaign, days after he was hospitalised when Florida law enforcement officials said he threatened to harm himself.

Parscale, one of Trump’s closest political aides, served as the campaign manager for the re-election effort until July, when he was demoted by Trump after a much-hyped campaign rally in Tulsa attracted an embarrassingly sparse crowd.

Brad Parscale, former Trump campaign manager, hospitalised after self-harm threats

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He was replaced by the then deputy campaign manager, Bill Stepien, but had stayed on as a senior adviser to the campaign until now.

Parscale’s break with the Trump campaign was first reported by Politico and was confirmed on Wednesday by a campaign official.

On Sunday, police officers talked Parscale out of his Fort Lauderdale home after his wife, Candice, called police to say that he had multiple firearms and was threatening to hurt himself. He was hospitalised on 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.

On Monday afternoon, police body-cam footage was released of Parscale being dramatically taken down and handcuffed by police.

When officers initially arrived, Candice Parscale said the couple had argued and Brad pulled out a handgun and loaded it.

She said he had post-traumatic stress disorder and had recently become violent, showing police bruises on her arms from an argument two days prior. Police photographed the injuries, they said, and the Miami Herald reported.

In a statement to Politico on Wednesday, Candice Parscale denied Brad Parscale physically abused her, saying: “The statements I made on Sunday have been misconstrued, let it be clear my husband was not violent towards me that day or any day prior.”

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.

Associated Press contributed to this report

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255, or you can text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counsellor. In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.