Paul Manafort resigned as chairman of Donald Trump’s US presidential campaign on Friday, Trump said, days after the Republican candidate effectively demoted him in a leadership shakeup aimed at boosting his struggling White House bid.
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“This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign”, he said in the statement.
But here’s one very important thing this move should teach everyone who’s been following Trump’s campaign, especially most of the news media: Donald Trump is smarter than you.
After Lewandowski was let go, the reins were given to Manafort who ran the Trump campaign until two days ago even though he was never given the title campaign manager. Hardly a good look for Trump, by almost all accounts.
Trump added that “Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success”.
Manafort, who has denied getting cash payments, worked with Kremlin-backed Yanukovych for a decade, helping him win presidential elections in 2010 that tilted Ukraine back into Russia’s orbit until the 2014 revolution that ousted him from power.
Manafort, the high profile head of the Trump Campaign, resigned on Friday.
Manafort was Trump’s second top campaign manager after Corey Lewandowski.
Full text of earlier article continues below. On Thursday, the Associated Press reported that Manafort’s firm orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine’s then-ruling political party.
The effort included not just legislative outreach but also attempts to sway American public opinion and gather political intelligence on competing lobbying efforts in the U.S.
Under U.S. law, people who lobby on behalf of foreign political leaders must provide detailed accounts of their work to the Justice Department.
King was not immediately available for comment on the report. It also obtained a statement from the nonprofit in question saying it was not directly or indirectly involved with a foreign entity, she said in an emailed statement. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has turned most of the swing states blue and showed signs of making a few red states purple, and Trump can’t seem to climb back up. John Podesta has not been with the firm for several years, but his brother is its chairman.
The AP report comes less than three months before the November 8 election and as polls show Trump slipping behind Clinton. He will remain chairman and chief strategist.
But the National Anti-Corruption Bureau emphasized that the mention of Manafort’s name in the party’s “black ledger” did not mean he had actually received the money. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau said, however, that it can not prove that Manafort actually received the money because other people including a prominent Party of the Regions deputy signed for him in those entries.
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Manafort has made headlines of his own this week, specifically for his actions while working for a Ukrainian politician. He hasn’t “ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russian Federation”, and his work in Ukraine ended after parliamentary elections there in October 2014, according to the statement. Maybe, like the last campaign manager to leave the Trump campaign, there will be a job waiting for him at CNN.
