Trump to take ‘optimistic’ message to voters, new manager says

Stephen Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News, was the campaign’s new CEO.

“The new CEO for the Trump campaign is a guy named Steve Bannon – a one-time Hollywood producer who once spent $1 million of his own money financing a film about Sarah Palin and most recently worked as the chief executive of Breitbart News”.

But Trump appeared to be referring to comments he made Wednesday in an interview on Fox News.

The latest shake-up combines Bannon, a conservative flamethrower, with Conway, a measured, data-driven analyst who might be able to broaden Trump’s appeal to women and independent voters.

Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway (L) and Paul Manafort, staff of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, speak during a round table discussion on security at Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of NY, U.S., August 17, 2016.

The Breitbart website’s hiring section says it’s looking for media junkies willing to “walk toward the fire” – an apt description of Bannon himself.

Weary Republican leaders are accepting Donald Trump’s latest staff shake-up, hopeful that a new leadership team can reverse the NY businessman’s struggles even as some worry it’s too little too late. Bannon’s organization has waged war not only on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, but has mobilized conservative voters to help oust former House Speaker John Boehner and regularly pressure his successor, Paul Ryan, as a feckless pawn of the elite.

He has since faced a barrage of criticism from Republicans over his campaign style and his refusal to stick to a policy message. He’s struggled to offer voters a consistent message, overshadowing formal policy speeches with a steady stream of controversies, including a public feud with an American Muslim family whose son was killed while serving in the US military in Iraq. “I have to be me”, he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” a year ago-but with about 80 days to go and everything on the line, he’s now leaning on them.

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Manafort, who took over the reins following the departure of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in June, has come under scrutiny because of his past work for a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party.

Steinem’s analogy could be attributed to the fact that Trump has been criticized during the campaign for his tepid denouncement of anti-Semitic supporters and for tweeting an image of Clinton and a Star of David created by a racist Twitter user and circulated by white-supremacists.

Pollster Kellyanne Conway, who has known Trump for years and gained his trust during her brief tenure working for him, will serve as campaign manager.

Trump appeared just that Thursday morning, taking to social media to tweet and retweet an array of freaky messages – one of his favorite and most frequent pastimes.

Trump is “an aggressive figure” who some women dislike, Bauer said, but Conway will give Trump suggestions for appealing to female voters, including “security moms” concerned about terrorism. She is expected to travel with Trump. She said Trump will take his case for change “right to Hillary Clinton: Hey, you’ve been in public office for decades”.

“My guess is Bannon will be a bull in a china shop and Conway will be focused on messaging and paid media”, said Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak.

Conway said the more disciplined approach by Trump would not mean jettisoning the real estate developer’s more off-the-cuff and unpredictable style.

Charlie Sykes, a Wisconsin-based conservative radio host who supported Ted Cruz in the GOP primary and continues to oppose Trump, was less charitable. “If you start pivoting, you’re not being honest with people”.

While his media-saturated, populist, outsider campaign fended off 16 rivals to win the Republican nomination, Trump has batted aside suggestions that he should change tack to win the November election from the centre.

Ken Doctor of Newsonomics said that Breitbart, along with sites like the Drudge Report and The Blaze, had emerged as part of a “reordering” at the top of USA conservative media. “This race is going to be close in the end, but he does need to tighten up his performance”.