Donald Trump's Website Goes Down During First Presidential Debate

SAN ANTONIO, TX — Maybe Donald Trump should think about building a firewall.

Trump's presidential campaign website went down during his first televised debate with Hillary Clinton on Monday, just as he was directing people to visit the portal operated by a Texas company — the first big test for the upstart since it made headlines for securing the contract to run Trump's digital presence.

In July, the Trump campaign disclosed to the Federal Election Commission that it paid $8.4 million, or 45 percent of its total spending for the month, to the Giles-Parscale firm. The firm was riding high after that contract, elevating the company to the forefront of national politics.

But then the debate came, viewed by an estimated 100 million people. That's when things took a turn.

"Take a note," the Washington Post suggested, directing its suggestion to the website. "If you are going to make mention of your website during a presidential debate where the audience is likely to be upwards of 80 million people, make sure it is ready for some traffic."

Even before the brief blackout, questions had been raised as to why Trump would entrust his digital operations to an unproven upstart. "The Secret Behind Trump's Comically Bad Digital Campaign?" Talking Points Memo asked in a July 22 headline in setting up a feature on the company.

That's gotta hurt.

The article goes on to describe the hiring of the company as quintessential Trump. Brad Parscale, the campaign's digital director ("He appears to be in charge of everything from site design to email lists, digital ad placement, targeting, data mining, the whole bit," TPM noted) is an exuberant Trump fan.

"He came to Trump's attention and from there he did various projects for the Trump organization," TPM reported. "They ranged from sites for buildings, one of Trump's real estate operations and even Trump's winery. He seems to have done a good job and at more competitive prices than New York firms. The Trump-Parscale relationship began in 2011."

The friendship blossomed into business, leading up to the coveted multimillion-dollar digital contract. This despite that "Giles-Parscale appears never to have worked in politics and from what I can tell has zero experience in campaign email marketing (hitting you up for cash via email), ad placement and targeting, data-mining etc.," TPM noted.

Donald Trump Jr. was dispatched to San Antonio on Sept. 13 to visit with the Giles-Parscale offices, ostensibly to check all was running smoothly. He tweeted out a photo of his visit.

It would appear Parscale, if not experienced in the political arena, has something else Trump cherishes: loyalty.

In an interview with Wired magazine, Parscale described his admiration for the mogul, saying he sees his own rise as paralleling that of his idol. "For starters, like Trump, he's a political novice who has built a professional reputation for himself in Texas but has never worked in Washington," Wired reported.

"In conversation, Parscale expresses fierce loyalty for his controversial boss," Wired wrote. "He says Trump gave 'a farm boy from Kansas' a chance. 'When I was successful, he continued to reward me over and over again, because I worked hard and produced success,' " Parscale told the magazine.

The two men have become so close, that Parscale has adopted Trump's manner of talking. "This deplorable is ready for #debatenight," he tweeted in response to his mentor's tweet mentioning his company. The "deplorable" reference is an allusion to Clinton's comment on the campaign trail that she would put half of the real estate mogul's suppot in a "basket of deplorables."

The company also tweeted out a photo of the staff, poised for debate night. In June, the San Antonio Business Journal reported the company was expected to hire 100 more employees to its then-60-person staff to support its contract for the Donald Trump for president campaign.

That late hiring gave rise to questions among industry insiders if the company would be ready to go come debate time. The blackout may have hinted at an answer.

The next debate is Oct. 9. at Washington University in St. Louis. Two days later, Trump is expected to return to San Antonio for another fundraiser. Maybe he'll pay his digital team a visit while there, and by the second debate his website won't be in such a deplorable state.

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