Embattled Trump campaign chairman Manafort resigns

Paul Manafort’s resignation on August 19 comes amid a campaign shake-up by Trump and reports about Manafort’s lobbying work for a Ukrainian political party and failure to register as a foreign agent.

Credit – Douliery Olivier/ABACA USA/NewscomDonald Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, tendered his resignation today, saying that he would step down from the campaign.

“My father didn’t want to be you know distracted by whatever things Paul was dealing with”, the younger Trump said in a preview of a Fox News interview airing Sunday.

She added that the White House announced Friday that President Barack Obama was visiting flood-ravaged Louisiana on Tuesday exclusively because Trump and vice presidential candidate Mike Pence toured Baton Rouge earlier in the day.

Trump said last month that he would consider recognizing Russian control of Crimea, and the Hillary Clinton campaign has made an issue out of his praise for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

Manafort’s undisclosed links to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych have come at a hard time for Trump as his rating have fallen over the past few weeks and he has been criticised for focusing on personal attacks rather than policy in the lead up to the November election.

Manafort officially joined the campaign in March, butting heads with then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who had promoted a campaign philosophy of “letting Trump be Trump”. The New York Times reported ledgers for Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political organization listed lucrative payments to him. A new campaign manager and executive were named earlier this week. Bannon’s role had left Manafort’s position unclear.

HollywoodLifers, are you shocked that Manafort has resigned? Manafort denies receiving those payments.

A Trump source told CNN said Manafort believed he was becoming a distraction and he wanted to end that.

Trump’s son, Eric Trump, told Fox News in an interview that will air Sunday that his father anxious questions about Manafort’s past were taking attention away from the billionaire’s presidential bid.