Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has moved to overhaul his struggling campaign by appointing a conservative website executive and a pollster to head his team amid sinking poll numbers.
Advertisement
(New York, NY) August 17th, 2016 – Donald J. Trump today announced that Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon has been appointed CEO, temporarily stepping down from his role with Breitbart News to work full-time on Mr. Trump’s campaign in a new position created to bolster the business-like approach of Mr. Trump’s campaign.
Trump told the Associated Press that he has known both people for a long time. “They are extremely capable, highly qualified people who love to win and know how to win”, said Trump.
The move comes just 82 days before the election and represents yet another shake-up for the tumultuous campaign.
Ms Conway has previously worked for Republican politicians Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich.
“I want to win”, Trump told the Wall Street Journal.
The Washington Post cited Trump campaign aides as saying Mr Trump respected Mr Manafort but felt “boxed in” by people “who barely knew him”. Paul Manafort, Trump’s controversial campaign chairman, will retain his title, but it is unclear if his role will change.
While Trump’s campaign staff publicly insists there is plenty of time left for the Republican to change the trajectory of the race, the candidate is facing a shrinking timeline.
Another headache for Manafort: the continued hovering presence of Lewandowski, now a CNN commentator, who remains a confidant of Trump.
But instead of waking up to reaction to that speech, questions over the campaign’s internal re-calibration was expected to dominate the political discussion on Wednesday, when Trump is also expected to receive his first classified intelligence briefing.
In recent days Manafort has been dogged by a New York Times report about his previous work in Ukraine.
Trump’s veteran political strategist Kellyanne Conway, a longtime Republican pollster, will become campaign manager.
Manafort had been unofficially filling the role of campaign manager after Lewandowski’s departure, but himself has been the subject of controversy amid questions over his ties to ousted Ukrainian Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich.
He said Conway, who had backed Trump rival Ted Cruz in the Republican primaries, could help Trump with “any gender gap problems that he has”.
“I am who I am”, he told a local station in Wisconsin.
The Trump campaign is slated to air ads in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio and North Carolina. It’s me. I don’t want to change. “If you start pivoting, you are not being honest withpeople”. Recent polling has Clinton leading in all four states.
Advertisement
The source noted that Lewandowski had issued a similar campaign memo when Manafort was hired in a volunteer capacity with the campaign.
