Breitbart News’ executive chairman Stephen Bannon was appointed the campaign CEO and pollster Kellyanne Conway was promoted to campaign manager, Trump’s campaign announced in a statement Wednesday.
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Coming on the heels of weeks of sliding polls and campaign turmoil, the moves represent something of a demotion for Manafort, who was originally brought in to manage Trump’s delegate operations but rose to command almost all aspects of the campaign after Lewandowski’s ouster.
“I’ve thought for a while that they’ve needed more smart, senior people and it looks like they just got them”, said Republican strategist Charlie Black. He says, “They’re terrific people, they’re winners, they’rechamps, and we need to win it”.
Trump skeptics say that staff changes will accomplish nothing if the candidate himself doesn’t turn the focus of the campaign away from his own controversial statements and personality and onto his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. With under 12 weeks until Election Day, Trump is running out of time to reset his campaign, but the reshuffling, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, has campaign aides believing that Trump has decided that he’s going to remain the bombastic candidate that overthrew the GOP establishment to seize Republican nomination-win or lose.
Republican Donald Trump shook up his struggling presidential campaign on Wednesday with moves to reinforce his insurgent, anti-Washington image but quickly encountered doubts on whether he is taking the right steps to boost slipping poll numbers. (The Mercer family is a prominent investor in Breitbart News as well as in a super PAC opposing Hillary Clinton.) Trump did the same and told her they had been talking. Early on Wednesday, he also tweeted news of the campaign shake-up, with no additional commentary.
By Sunday, as Manafort appeared on network television shows, Trump was stewing and dialing up his friends, the Republicans said.
Manafort was seen as someone who could help guide Trump on broadening his appeal to general-election voters.
In June, Trump dumped his then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who had been credited with the real estate magnate’s initial breakthrough in the primaries.
While the reshuffle is created to allay doubts about Trump’s candidacy and help the nominee course-correct after a series of controversies, like his attacks on a Gold Star family and his suggestion that “Second Amendment people” could stop Clinton, it’s unclear whether the overhaul will move the needle for Trump – particularly at this late stage in the campaign, with early voting starting in less than six weeks. She denied reports of a shake-up, telling the New York Times, “It’s an expansion at a busy time in the final stretch of thecampaign”.
Clinton’s campaign has called for full disclosure of any ties between pro-Russia entities and Manafort or anyone else from Trump’s team. The appointment formalizes what has been an informal and beneficial relationship between Breitbart.com and the campaign.
The source also said Trump was less concerned than his children were about Manafort’s Russian Federation ties.
Manafort and Lewandowski have had a bitter relationship ever since Manafort came onto the campaign, which only worsened when Lewandowski was sacked in June during the last major campaign overhaul.
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“I want to win”, Trump told the Journal. Everyone talks about, ‘Oh are you going to pivot?’ I don’t want to pivot. -Donald Trump in a “Law and Order” address in Wisconsin Tuesday. I mean, you have to be you.
