“I think we’re going to sharpen the message, and we’re going to make sure Donald Trump is comfortable about being in his own skin, that he doesn’t lose that authenticity that you simply can’t buy and a pollster can’t give you”, Ms. Conway said.
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Conway’s mere presence, as the first woman to manage a Republican presidential campaign, helps Trump, who faces a huge gender gap.
While his tweet-saturated, populist, outsider campaign defeated 16 rivals to win the Republican nomination, Trump has rejected suggestions that he should change tack to win the November election from the center. Wednesday’s announcements come less than three months before Trump’s Election Day face-off with Clinton, and roughly six weeks before early voting begins.
Trump has lost support and alienated voters in droves in a fortnight which saw him insult the Khans (the Muslim parents of slain American Muslim soldier Humayun Khan); call Hillary Clinton “the devil”; say it was “very sad” that women at Fox News were “complaining” about being sexually harassed; and appear to joke about being given a Purple Heart by a war veteran.
Will Ritter, a Republican political operative in Virginia who isn’t supporting Trump, offered a biting assessment: “Another guy is going to ride the psychotic horse into a burning stable”.
A Trump press release Wednesday bragged about the headline on Green’s important Businessweek article describing Bannon as “the most risky political operative in America”.
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump received his first intelligence briefing from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “And I think that they’re going to hopefully look at opening their checkbooks to the idea that he’s fully committed to winning”, said Citizens United president David Bossie, who took over the Mercers’ PAC after Conway departed for the campaign. I don’t need a tax cut. “This is it”, she added. They say he has grown angry with his sinking poll numbers and frustrated that many GOP lawmakers remain skeptical of his candidacy.
Several Republicans discussed the personnel changes on the condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to publicly disclose internal thinking.
Republican fundraisers on Wednesday – including those with ties to the brass-knuckled world of Bannon’s Breitbart and anti-establishment insurgent groups – expressed mixed confidence that Bannon could open the door to donors beyond the Mercers.
Conway and Bannon may prove to be opposing forces in Trump’s campaign. In recent years, Breitbart News has bedeviled Republican leaders, helping to drive out former House Speaker John Boehner and, more recently, making life hard for his successor, Paul Ryan.
He has also actively promoted false conspiracy theories about Mrs Clinton, and some have then made their way into Mr Trump’s remarks.
Bannon, a former naval officer, investment banker, filmmaker, and entrepreneur, has been described as a “street fighter” whose style is to “win at all costs” by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. She’s also close with daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, another influential voice in the candidate’s inner circle.
He said it’s an open question whether Trump, in turning to Bannon, can use the Internet “as an animating structure” for his campaign without embracing more traditional methods involving party structure, get-out-the-vote efforts and a political ground game.
Trump’s own diagnosis of his campaign’s shortcomings led to this unusual prescription-which is the diametric opposite of what most Republicans have been counseling for their embattled nominee.
Conway is skilled at presenting complex data in a way that’s easily digestible, said Republican strategist Phil Musser, who is familiar with her work on state and congressional races. While Trump held a handful of meetings with Washington Republicans and fulfilled requests from GOP leaders to raise campaign cash, he’s continued to rankle lawmakers with his numerous controversies.
Conway, who will now travel extensively with Trump, will help guide messaging, Manfort said.
The media also believes it was presidential for McCain not to bring up Obama’s association with Reverend Wright, and for Dole not to criticize Bill Clinton on his sexual harassment history. “I said, ‘Sean, I’m not paying you 350 grand to associate Breitbart News with a failed brand like the RNC'”.
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“If you start pivoting, you’re not being honest with people”, Trump said in an interview ahead of the shake-up.
