Donald Trump has shaken up his presidential campaign again, promoting a senior advisor and hiring a top executive from Breitbart News, sources said Wednesday.
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The move comes just 82 days before the election and represents yet another shake-up for the tumultuous campaign. “They’re terrific people, they’re winners, they’re champs and we need to win“.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the moves.
Clinton’s campaign has been largely shake-up free.
Manafort spoke of a pivot in tone and style in his early days on the campaign, but all along Trump has insisted there will be no change. 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. In Utah, typically a reliably Republican state, Trump’s challenges have been particularly striking.
An anonymous campaign aide said that Trump has been feeling “boxed in” and “controlled” by his current campaign staff. Trump wants to get back to the “let Trump be Trump” style of his early primary, when ousted campaign operative Corey Lewandowski was calling the shots. A former Goldman Sachs banker, Bannon does not have presidential campaign experience but he shares Trump’s combative approach to politics. Everyone talks about, “Oh, well you’re gonna pivot, you’re gonna” – I don’t want to pivot, I mean, you have to be you.
Ms. Conway, a highly sought-after pollster, will work on messaging and travel frequently with Mr. Trump, while working closely with Mr. Bannon and Mr. Manafort on all aspects of the campaign moving forward. In June, he fired longtime aide Lewandowski as campaign manager and handed more power to senior campaign aide Paul Manafort.
The changes were made Sunday and due to be formally announced on Wednesday.
Most worrying for the campaign, however, is Trump’s lack of a serious ground game to compete with Clinton’s voter-turnout machine.
Donald Trump is set to receive his first classified national security briefing in New York City Wednesday.
“I can’t help wondering whether Trump may be thinking post-November of creating a media organization of some kind that caters to disgruntled white men of the kind who fueled his campaign”, said Kristof, “and Ailes and Bannon could be a part of that braintrust as well”. “We’ve really been given a false narrative”, Trump said of his struggles in Utah.
While polls have shown Clinton building a lead following the Philadelphia convention, Democrats are fearful that a depressed voter turnout might diminish support among the minority, young and female voters who powered Obama to two victories.
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Clinton, at her own event Tuesday in Philadelphia, said Trump’s foreign policy statements send the wrong message to both allies and enemies.
