Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of Washington Secrets. Today we reveal how Donald Trump’s top data lieutenant has secured a deal to collect data from World Cup soccer fans in Washington, D.C., and we ask whether the president has more in common with Joe Biden than he would care to admit …
Brad Parscale was the digital elections guru who helped propel Donald Trump to power in 2016 using targeted ads on Facebook.
Today, he has a suite of AI-powered tools that he says can sift data to identify persuadable voters and generate customized emails.
But what soccer fans in Washington, D.C., might not realize is that Parscale’s company is collecting emails and phone numbers from anyone who signs up for the FIFA World Cup 2026 watch party on the National Mall.
When Secrets signed up to join the official Fan Zone, a receipt and barcode arrived bearing the logo of Campaign Nucleus.
The company is better known for its political work. It raked in almost $2 million during 2024, for the Trump campaign and assorted Republican groups, running online registration for rallies, firing out campaign emails for other candidates, and sending press releases.
It is enough to give privacy campaigners and Democrats sleepless nights.
Nathan Lerner, a Democratic consultant, said soccer fans probably had no idea their data was being handled by Parscale and his company.
“They really just have a very dystopian approach to big data,” he told Secrets. “And I think anytime you see anyone who is that high up and that close within the Trump orbit, and their name is on something like that … I would be very, very wary.”
The Fan Zone on the National Mall is due to open at 2 p.m. Thursday.
It is not just the World Cup events. Campaign Nucleus is handling media and ticketing for other Freedom 250 events, the controversial program to mark the semiquincentennial that is staffed by Trump loyalists. Sign up for the Great American State Fair, for example, and ticketing emails come with the Nucleus logo.
Campaign Nucleus and Freedom 250 did not respond to requests for comment.
Parscale rose to prominence in 2016 as the brains behind carefully targeted online advertisements. “I pretty much used Facebook to get Trump elected in 2016,” he famously said in a 2022 podcast interview.
His techniques involved sifting through a database of known Trump supporters and identifying common traits to find similar people online.
He teamed up with Cambridge Analytica, the notorious British data-mining firm later investigated for the way it harvested data from 87 million Facebook accounts.
Victory in 2016 saw Parscale return for the 2020 campaign, and he rose to become campaign manager. At 6-foot-8, his bearded presence was easily recognizable at events.
But he was replaced when poor attendance at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, irritated Trump, and he was moved back to a digital role.
He stepped away from the campaign altogether after being detained by police at his Florida home. His wife reported that he had multiple firearms and was worried he would hurt himself.
Today, he is back at the heart of conservative politics with his digital campaigns firm and a series of lucrative deals. He was recruited last year by Israel to run a multimillion-dollar social media campaign designed to reshape how AI platforms depicted the country.
Lerner said he was not surprised to see a character like Parscale working on events around the FIFA World Cup.
“That actually is a massive red flag, because you know FIFA has obviously done a lot to suck up to Trump and that means hiring people in his orbit,” he said.
Which president? Joe or Don?
Sometimes it feels as if Trump and Joe Biden have more in common than they care to admit. Presidencies defined by their age, they are both teetotal, and their hopes and dreams have been upended by war in the Middle East.
It turns out that men of their generation tend to fall into similar patterns. Take this line from Jill Biden’s new memoir, “View from the East Wing,” describing dinner at one of the favorite fish restaurants.
“The waiter came back. I ordered fish and French fries. Joe ordered a hamburger, as he typically does even at seafood restaurants.”
You can just imagine Trump doing much the same. Or going for the steak option.
However, one area where they differ is in choice of soft drinks.
“Joe was always within arm’s reach of a Coke Zero or an ice cream bar,” writes Jill as she describes the top-class service they enjoyed at the White House.
Trump, we know, is a Diet Coke man. And he even managed to get his hands on one last night during the basketball game at Madison Square Garden, which famously has a contract that only allows Pepsi to be sold.
Lunchtime reading
President Trump crashes the Knicks party—and San Antonio takes the win: It is always worth reading Jason Gay in the Wall Street Journal. Add a presidential hex, a “Bronx cheer”, and you have a proper series, not just a parade.
How Lindsey Graham has tried to outrun his past criticism of Trump: How long is primary season? Too long, if you ask me. Anyway, can businessman Mark Lynch use previous comments against Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and cast himself as the true MAGA candidate in their primary?
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