WASHINGTON ― Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, has had success dealing with hard-to-manage dictatorial types, from Imelda Marcos of the Philippines to Jonas Savimbi of Angola to Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine.
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Party chairman Reince Priebus appealed to the NY billionaire’s adult children to help.
“I mean, people are going to walk in, they are going to vote 10 times maybe”, Trump said in an interview on “The O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel.
“He feels like a fool”, a Republican source familiar with the situation said. “And I’m in control of doing the things that he wants me to do in the campaign”.
Trump’s operation has been beset by internal discord, including growing concern about general election preparedness and a lack of support from Republican leaders, according to two people familiar with the organization’s inner workings. The RealClearPolitics average of recent national polls put her 4.5 percentage points ahead of Trump, at 46.5 percent to 42 percent. Joe Scarborough reports that, in foreign-policy briefings, Trump has repeatedly asked why it is that the United States can’t use nuclearweapons.
Trump invited more tension Tuesday when he told The Washington Post he’s not ready to endorse Ryan in next week’s Republican primary contest against Paul Nehlen, praising the underdog for running “a very good campaign”. Democrats see potential gains in those states based exclusively on Trump’s divisiveness. “For me, if our party has a future, we have to change that trajectory and lead by example”.
Washington was still trying to come to terms with one of the most weird days in recent campaign history on which President Barack Obama slammed Trump as unfit for the presidency and the GOP standard-bearer effectively declared war on his own party by refusing to endorse Ryan and Arizona Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., by reiterating his decision not to endorse McCain in his August 30 primary. A much smaller share – 36% – of white Clinton supporters said the same.
You nearly feel sorry for them.
The Pew poll found that 77 percent of voters were convinced that he would bring about real change – although majority thought the change would be for the worse.
“I will vote for Hillary, I will talk to my Republican friends about helping her, and I will donate to her campaign and try to raise money for her”, she told the newspaper.
Manafort was joined in the room on the call with CNN’s Dana Bash by almost all of the campaign’s senior staff, including Rick Gates, Hope Hicks and Stephen Miller, as part of an aggressive show of force to push back against suggestions of frustration. When Trump locked up the Republican nomination in May, we were told a “pivot” to more “presidential” behavior was imminent.
While Trump has not publicly expressed any interest in quitting the race, officials are apparently “frustrated” and “confused” by Trump’s erratic behavior and are exploring how they would replace him should he drop out.
“These people would climb over barbed wire for Donald Trump, chew on glass to make sure that they get him elected”, Lewandowski, who was sacked from the campaign in June, told CNN.
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Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, disputed any signs of frustration within the campaign.
