Donald Trump
Donald TrumpReuters

U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign announced on Tuesday that his campaign had hired Brad Parscale, the digital media director of his 2016 campaign, to run his re-election bid in 2020.

While it was no surprise that Trump will run for re-election in 2020, it is unusual for a sitting president to hire a campaign manager three years before the election, noted CNN.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters in June 2017 that Trump was going to run for re-election in 2020.

"Of course, he's running for re-election," Sanders said at the time.

Eric Trump, one of the President's sons, touted Parscale as an "amazing talent" who was "pivotal to our success in 2016."

"He has our family's complete trust and is the perfect person to be at the helm of the campaign," he said in a release from the campaign.

Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law and senior adviser, added that Parscale was "essential in bringing a disciplined technology and data-driven approach to how the 2016 campaign."

Parscale has remained an active force in his political operation, America First, since the president stepped into the White House, noted CNN. His Florida-based firm, Parscale Strategy, has a contract with the Republican National Committee to, among other things, help grow its data base of small donors.

Parscale's formal title during the Trump 2016 campaign was digital director, but behind the scenes he grew into much more: directing campaign spending on television ads as well as digital, building a small dollar donor operation, and having significant influence on the overall campaign working closely with then-Republican National Committee chief of staff Katie Walsh and the RNC get out the vote operation.

Last month it was reported that Vermont Senator and 2016 Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is considering challenging Trump in the 2020 election.

Sanders, a self-described social democrat and one of the Senate’s two registered independents, challenged former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2016.

While initially considered a marginal candidate, Sanders won more than 43% of Democratic primary votes nationwide, and garnered 1,865 Democratic National Convention delegates.