Oh, so now the narrative is now officially that the Trump camp was, like, the most sophisticated digital targeting machine ever? Oh, OK, gotcha. https://adage.com/article/campaign-trail/trump-camp-s-inexperience-set-stage-rnc-data-win/307105 My sources throughout the entire campaign said different:

"Internally, the campaign had no real data infrastructure -- nothing that could come close to what was required of a modern-day presidential campaign for targeted voter contact, anyway."

"It's important to remember...Trump's antagonistic approach [to data] during the primaries had left many party insiders and leaders with a sour taste...and it remained unclear whether the Trump campaign would trust the RNC enough to strap on its pre-fab data apparatus."

"Plus, the Trump camp had already begun working with Cambridge Analytica, which had worked with Ted Cruz's failed primary campaign and garnered a lot of media coverage early in the primaries for its psychographic approach to voter targeting."

"[Parscale] saw a machine that was pre-built over here at the RNC, and Brad and I took a bet on each other," said [Katie] Walsh, a rising star in the GOP...credited with shepherding the party's data and analytics forces into a streamlined operation."

"There were no Cambridge Analytica representatives at either the Trump Tower meeting in October or an earlier strategy meeting at RNC headquarters in late August attended by TargetPoint, Causeway and senior RNC and Trump campaign staff."

The story is being rewritten to fit a perception that Cambridge were evil political targeting geniuses pulling the strings all along. Just because their data was obtained inappropriately, does not mean the Trump camp were data masterminds. https://adage.com/article/campaign-trail/trump-camp-s-inexperience-set-stage-rnc-data-win/307105