After Trump campaign swap, questions — and Kushner — remain

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s long-in-coming campaign shakeup rearranged some big job titles but isn't likely to change the identity of the person truly in charge of day-to-day operations: Jared Kushner.

Kushner wields his influence quietly and is rarely a presence in the campaign’s suburban Washington headquarters. Fittingly, he was nowhere to be seen Thursday when, in an emotional changing of the guard meeting, campaign manager Brad Parscale surrendered his title to onetime deputy Bill Stepien.

Facing strong electoral headwinds, it was Trump who demoted Parscale and elevated Stepien. But Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, is expected to remain the driving force behind a political operation built to respond to Trump’s instincts and give him another four years in office.

Parscale's ouster reflects Trump's willingness to shake things up as the coronavirus blocks him from holding his trademark rallies and as he grapples with polls showing him significantly trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden, according to some of the seven campaign officials and Republicans who discussed the shakeup on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

But it also shows a new willingness by Trump to diversify his inner circle, even if Kushner remains at the helm. Some Republican Party officials and outside allies have been encouraging Trump to listen to a broader array of political advice, believing that Kushner has filled the president’s ear with voices that echo Kushner's.

That process began when Trump first elevated Stepien to senior adviser and returned Jason Miller to the campaign last month. Parscale, for his part, was once the hand-picked choice of Kushner, but the president's son-in-law was among those who have...