Trump shakes up campaign staff

John Feehery, a Republican strategist, said Conway may be able to help Trump among women voters.

A newly appointed top aide to Donald Trump disputed the idea there’s been a campaign shake-up, saying the Republican nominee is building his organization ahead of the stretch run to the November 8 election.

“He’s rejecting efforts by political professionals to professionalize his campaign and he’s going the route he went in the primaries: hard right. This is a winning coalition”, observed Viguerie. Paul Manafort, Trump’s controversial campaign chairman, will retain his title, but it is unclear if his role will change.

Now that Bannon is the formal campaign executive for the Republican nominee, he will step down from his position at Breitbart, at least, until the campaigning is over.

The Trump camp did release an email scandal video in early July, but it didn’t actually air anywhere – nor have any general election ads paid for by his campaign.

“I think my father didn’t want to be, you know, distracted by whatever things Paul was dealing with”, Eric Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo.

She said she was also advising him to take “his case directly to the people”.

Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute, said the website has figured out how to push political story angles that animate “an audience of a particular orientation”, in this case an angry subset of Republicans that predates the tea party movement and now overlaps with Trump’s base.

While many analysts see the move as taking power from campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Conway noted that Manafort and deputy Rick Gates are maintaining their jobs.

Trump aides say the staff changes usher in a greater focus on policy and a more serious tone. Breitbart’s obeisance to Trump is total: After Corey Lewandowski (while still on Trump’s payroll) physically assaulted Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields and then accused her of lying about the incident, Breitbart News instructed staffers to not defend Fields and instead published a piece defending Lewandowski and undermining Fields’ version of events. Corey Lewandowski, the first man to helm the Trump campaign, was sacked in June after losing a power struggle with campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who took over the day-to-day operations.

The images of Trump and Pence handing out emergency supplies from the back of a truck in St Amant, Louisiana, are created to take the edge off the nominee’s hard man reputation.

Lewandowski said Tuesday evening on CNN that while Trump may try to be “more inclusive”, Trump “knows who he is internally”. Yet his role grew to serve as Trump’s connection to the GOP establishment, telling Republican elders that their presidential nominee would run a traditional campaign that would not imperil down-ballot candidates.

Trump has another adviser with close ties to Atlantic County. The newspaper noted that Obama interrupted his two-week vacation on Martha’s Vineyard earlier this week to attend a fundraiser for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on the MA island. Manafort has denied impropriety.

The source also said Trump was less concerned than his children were about Manafort’s Russian Federation ties.

Manafort, a longtime Washington fixture, was originally brought on in the spring to save Trump from a defeat at the Republican convention should Trump have failed to win enough delegates to clinch a first-ballot nomination.

Trump appeared to be trying to connect with minority and independent voters during a speech Tuesday night in Wisconsin, where he tamped down his natural urge to attack critics, exaggerate facts and speak off the cuff.

The source said Bannon came on after it was clear both Trump and his children, especially his son-in-law Jared Kushner, trusted his advice and analysis.