Trump names 2020 campaign manager, which would appear to mean . . .

I don't know if anyone really thought he wouldn't run for re-election, but you're pretty much laying any doubt to rest when you name the guy who's going to run your re-election campaign. And today, President Trump did just that:

President Trump has tapped Brad Parscale -- the towering, bearded political consultant described as a “genius” by The Washington Post -- as the man to lead Trump’s 2020 re-election bid as campaign manager. Parscale, who had previously worked for the Trump Organization, worked as Trump’s top digital operations guru for the 2016 campaign and was credited for possibly tipping the election. Born in Topeka Kansas, Parscale says he spent 15 years building his company he started with just $500 before moving to the Trump Organization in 2010. But as he moved up the ranks to eventually take control of the Trump campaign’s digital arm, he wielded significant influence and pushed the campaign to invest in social media advertising, particularly Facebook. "You want a great product, you want things that resonate with people and make them dance,” he said at a conference in November. The Washington Post called him the “genius who won Trump’s campaign. “The campaign poured money into Facebook, sending thousands of versions of tweaked ads to maximize response,” a profile from the Post said. “Then it won the presidency by a margin narrow enough that Parscale (and Facebook) can justifiably take credit.”

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I have no opinion about whether Parscale is a good choice. When I get to the point where I'm so into politics that I actually know the names and reputations of political operatives then I need to go back to dishwashing (which I'd actually be happy to do now if the money was good enough). But one thing I know about Trump is that he values loyalty, or at least what he perceives as loyalty. Omarosa Manigault-Newman got her job based on Trump's belief that she was firmly on the Trump team. I don't imagine he still believes that. But Parscale is probably a different story because he comes from within the Trump organization and doesn't appear to have designs on public-figure status. His knowledge of social media is clearly the key here. Now I can tell you that the recent changes in Facebook's algorithms have thrown for a loop a lot of people who thought they were social media experts, and if Trump's 2020 re-election campaign is based on optimizing social media then Parscale can't just do what he did in 2016. I imagine he knows that, but it's one thing to know you need a new strategy and another thing entirely to come up with the one that works. For the most part, presidents are re-elected or thrown out on the basis of peace-and-prosperity issues, not the tactical genius of a campaign manager. If the tax cut is giving us consistent GDP growth that's pushing 4.0 percent and we haven't been dragged into an unpopular war, chances are Trump will be re-elected regardless of his tweets or anything else. Of course, this time he won't be running against the worst presidential nominee in the history of this country, so "I'm not as awful as Hillary" will no longer be available as a rationale for giving him your vote. This is still an awfully long ways off but these cycles seem to expand every time, and if President Trump knows who he wants leading this effort, there's no sense delaying in letting him get to work.