Jewish Journal: How does one go from serving as AIPAC’s Southwest Regional Political Director a year ago to running Donald Trump’s national political operation today?
Ever since Trump announced his White House bid last June, Michael Glassner has been serving as his campaign’s national political director. In part, he is credited with landing the coveted Sarah Palin endorsement ahead of the Iowa Caucus last month.
Glassner’s political journey began as a 20-year-old college student from Kansas when he served as Bob Dole’s traveling aide in the 1988 presidential campaign. “I became the right-hand man for the Senate Majority Leader and a presidential candidate,” Glassner related in an interview with Jewish Insider. “It was a tremendous education in politics, and that was the beginning of what became a 15-year relationship as I worked for Senator Dole in a number of capacities.”
Upon moving to New Jersey in the late nineties, Glassner served as a senior advisor to Lewis Eisenberg, the then-Chairman of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and a prominent Republican Jewish leader. He worked out of the Port Authority’s World Trade Center office but left just before 9/11 to join IDT Corp in Newark. Glassner credits his former boss, IDT founder Howard Jonas, whom he referred to as “a strong Zionist and an AIPAC guy,” with encouraging him to become more active in pro-Israel politics. Intermittently between 2000 to 2008, Glassner would take time off to return to the campaign trail: running George W. Bush’s general election campaign in Iowa, fundraising for Bush’s ’04 re-election effort, and in ’08, where he managed Sarah Palin’s vice presidential campaign.
“My interest in pro-Israel politics had grown exponentially,” Glassner recalled. “Particularly since 9-11, which represented a real credible threat to all Americans and in particular as a Jew, I felt very strongly about the threat of radical Islam and so I became more and more involved with AIPAC.” In 2014, Glassner officially joined AIPAC as their Southwest Regional Political Director where, according to his LinkedIn profile, he managed AIPAC’s legislative mobilizations, conducted briefings with candidates, and spoke at political events throughout the region.
In July 2015, the phone rang. Donald Trump, a real-estate magnate, decided to run an unconventional campaign for president. Keeping senior hires to the minimum, the Trump campaign offered Glassner to join and serve as its national political director. “The Trump campaign came to me for a lot of reasons,” Glassner told Jewish Insider regarding the recruitment process. “I think they were looking for somebody that had experience in presidential politics and who was already in the area, and I live in New Jersey.” And, of course, there was the Sarah Palin factor. “The Palin connection was also very attractive to them because, although Palin and McCain’s campaign was not successful, I think that was sort of a marker for the anti-establishment movement… I think that that helped my credentials in this arena because I’ve shown that I was willing to take on the status quo, willing to buck the establishment, and I think that is what this campaign is all about.”
Glassner told Jewish Insider he didn’t have to use his influence to convince Palin to endorse Trump but that his prior relationship certainly helped. “They had established a relationship sometime back. And I think that her inclination is very much aligned with his.,” he said. “Mr. Trump did the persuading. I think it was helpful that she had a friend here in the campaign, somebody she knew, and I demonstrated my loyalty to her, which I think helped. But, ultimately, it was everything that he is saying about the country is in line with whatever she has been saying. I think that’s a natural alliance in my view.”
Asked to describe the transition from AIPAC to Trump, Glassner said, “This campaign is much different than any campaign I’ve been on in a lot of ways. But probably, primarily because the culture has a more corporate and a business-like approach than other campaigns. Mr. Trump is self-funding his campaign, and he’s been very effective throughout his life in maximizing his investments. And we are approaching this campaign in the same way, and you’ve seen the results of that. If you look at the results in New Hampshire, the amount of money spent per vote, I believe Mr. Trump was by far the most efficient.”
