Paul Manafort resigned as chairman of Donald Trump’s US presidential campaign on Friday, no longer enjoying the full confidence of a Republican candidate who is trying to boost his flagging White House bid.
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“This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign”, Trump said.
Trump overhauled his top political team this week, demoting Manafort, who was brought on as campaign chief in June to professionalize its approach but struggled to get the wealthy businessman to rein in his freewheeling ways.
United States news media is reporting that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort has resigned effective today. Recent reports have scrutinized Manafort’s business ties to Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs.
The new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, had described Manafort and Gates as part of a new “core four” atop the Trump operation with her and CEO Stephen Bannon.
Manafort has come under scrutiny over his work with pro-Russian political groups in Ukraine.
A Trump rally Thursday night revealed hints that Trump may be heeding the advice of party leaders and insiders to shift his tone – something Manafort had urged.
Manafort, a longtime Washington fixture, was originally brought on in the spring to save Trump from a defeat at the Republican convention should Trump have failed to win enough delegates to clinch a first-ballot nomination. That decision by Trump seemed to be an embrace of Manafort’s strategy.
Trump, who has been accused of offending Mexicans, Muslims, immigrants, the disabled and fellow Republicans such as John McCain during his 14-month presidential campaign, did not specify which comments he regretted and said at one point that journalists have often taken him “out of context”.
“Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing”, Trump told backers in Charlotte, N.C.
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Lewandowski said Friday that he had nothing to do with the change, but said it marked a much-needed course correction before Labor Day.
