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Two new members have been added to Donald Trump’s campaign in the wake of the Republican presidential nominee’s poor performance thus far.
Breitbart News LLC Executive Chairman and Former Goldman Sachs banker Stephen Bannon has been assigned the post of Chief Executive Officer for Trump’s campaign, while veteran GOP pollster and strategist Kellyanne Conway has been promoted to campaign manager.
Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort has not lost his job in any way, the campaign said, but has rather just received a support system to help him moving forward.
Manafort has been the topic of several news reports himself, usually regarding the work he did for a Ukrainian political party with very close ties to Russia.
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The Trump campaign has fallen significantly behind Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s in most national and “battle-ground” polls and needs an urgent revamp in order to recover.
Republicans are hoping for a course adjustment before the Labor Day kickoff of the general election race. They have complained the campaign is not strong enough to withstand the general election.
“I want to win,” Trump said after making the hires, which many say were done very late in the year. “That’s why I’m bringing on fantastic people who know how to win and love to win.”
Ever since the Republican National Convention, Trump’s campaign has been widely criticized, particularly by GOP officials who say he goes off script and causes one controversy after another. They urged him to construct a more disciplined campaign.
Initially, Trump stayed true to his unorthodox style, but more recently, he has been working harder on getting more support and “firepower” behind his campaign in traditional ways. The candidate believes he can achieve this by adding more capable individuals to his thinly staffed campaign.
Paul Manafort and Stephen Bannon met on Sunday at the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey to discuss new strategies for the campaign.
Trump’s tendency to go off script was addressed at the meeting, which may be why he stayed almost completely to the teleprompter script on Monday afternoon while establishing an antiterrorism strategy.
It isn’t clear yet exactly how these additions to the team will change the campaign, but we can expect an increase in polling and analytics, which are the areas of strength for these new participants.
Source: Wall Street Journal.
