Breitbart News head Stephen K. Bannon will be the campaign’s new chief executive officer “in a new position created to bolster the business-like approach”.
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Bannon directed The Undefeated, a positive 2011 film about Sarah Palin, and wrote Clinton Cash, a negative 2015 film about foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation.
One of Trump’s advisers, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, was the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The appointment formalizes what has been an informal and beneficial relationship between Breitbart.com and the campaign. Even if he wins every toss-up state tracked by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, he would still lose the election, according to a new analysis this week.
Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump’s decision to shake up his campaign staff will have little impact on his controversial political message.
Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News, leads a news organization that has been accused of promoting inaccurate stories and excusing unethical behavior.
“Trump Echoes Breitbart: Battle with Islam ‘Like The Cold War, ‘” read one headline earlier this week. “He has also discussed the possibility of launching a “mini-media conglomerate” outside of his existing TV-production business, Trump Productions LLC”. Last month the site started selling “Breitbart Border Wall Construction Co”.
He has also actively promoted false conspiracy theories about Mrs Clinton, and some have then made their way into Mr Trump’s remarks.
Bannon quickly began to prepare for a takeover.
This year he has repeatedly interviewed Trump. Conway, who worked on Newt Gingrich’s 2012 campaign and has long counted Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, as a client, had thoughts on how Trump could reach out to more women and suburban voters.
Breitbart CEO Larry Solov said in a statement that no interim replacement will be appointed.
“After several failed attempts to pivot into a more serious and presidential mode, Donald Trump has chose to double down on his most small, nasty and divisive instincts by turning his campaign over to someone who’s best known for running a so-called news site that peddles divisive, at times racist, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories”, Mr Mook told reporters.
“Steve is a person who’s had unparalleled success in the private sector”, Lewandowski said. Everyone talks about, ‘Oh, well you’re going to pivot, you’re going to.’ I don’t want to pivot.
Bannon has never run a political campaign. He hosts a conservative radio programme and makes documentaries attacking left-wing groups such as the Occupy movement.
His harnessing of media megaphones led Bloomberg to call him “the most risky political operative in America” in a profile past year.
Donald Trump, following weeks of gnawing agitation over his advisers’ attempts to temper his style, moved late Tuesday to overhaul his struggling campaign by rebuffing those efforts and elevating two longtime associates who have encouraged his combative populism.
Under Bannon, Breitbart News emerged as a leading defender of Trump. Other staff is also expected to be brought on in the coming days.
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And the decision also follows a slew of self-inflicted wounds since the Democratic National Convention wrapped, with Trump exchanging barbs with the parents of a slain USA soldier, reigniting intra-party tensions by initially declining to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan in his reelection bid and ultimately suggesting that “Second Amendment people” could act to keep Clinton from appointing liberal Supreme Court justices should she become president.
