Donald Trump’s campaign turnaround plan on Friday featured the unorthodox candidate acting much like a conventional politician struggling to revive a presidential bid on the ropes.
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With the resignation of campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign is now without a single senior figure who has ever run a campaign.
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.
The ousting of Manafort will likely have a ripple effect on the campaign and the transition team, where the former Reagan and George H.W. Bush operative had installed his allies.
The source said it was Lewandowski, and separately Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had been in Trump’s ear with concerns about Manafort and Ukraine: “Corey was trying to give the boss in the impression that any minute now he was going to get caught up in an worldwide money laundering scandal…”
The 30-second ad focuses on immigration, saying Clinton would allow “terrorists and unsafe criminals” into the country, a charge her campaign dismisses.
He first took control of Mr Trump’s campaign after the businessman’s campaign manager was sacked in June.
After the AP reported earlier this week that Manafort helped the Ukrainian political party secretly route at least $2.2 million to the two Washington lobbying firms, Manafort told Yahoo News that the AP’s account was wrong.
In spite of Mr Manafort’s efforts to impose discipline on the Republican nominee, Mr Trump continued to do badly in the polls and reportedly bristled at efforts to bring him under control. “I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today”, he added. Barry Bennett – formerly of the Carson campaign, fired in July Ed Brookover – fired in July Michael Glassner – Trump’s first political director, a veteran of Bob Dole’s 1996, moved over to Mike Pence team in July.
Mercury’s founder, Vin Weber, an influential Republican and former congressman, told the AP that his firm was aware of Manafort’s and Gates’ affiliation with Ukraine’s political party and said Gates never participated in Mercury’s lobbying work.
But Manafort’s role in the campaign had been significantly marginalized under the new leadership structure announced Wednesday.
“It doesn’t matter who (Manafort) is, in my opinion”, said Erin Sherron, a vacationing 53-year-old dental hygienist and Trump supporter from Greensboro, N.C.
Clinton’s campaign called the resignation an admission of the Trump campaign’s “disturbing” connections with allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia and Ukraine. “You can get rid of Manafort, but that doesn’t end the odd bromance Trump has with Putin”.
Despite today’s latest staff shake-up, Donald Trump’s campaign still maintains strong ties to Russian Federation and pro-Kremlin elements. Still, Trump offered rare words of regret on Thursday for any time he had caused “personal pain” with his take-no-prisoners style. “I have done that, and believe it or not, I regret it”.
“I’ve known him since we were in college, he’s a first-class person, he’s an wonderful individual and he has been the lead architect in trying to seamlessly put together the institutional side of this campaign”, Barrack said in an interview.
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Trump shocked many on Thursday by expressing “regret” for past mistakes and began airing his first television ads on Friday in a desperate attempt to chip into Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s yawning lead in the polls.
