Embattled Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned on Friday, capping a week of dramatic changes for Trump as he seeks to regain his footing against Democratic US presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton ahead of the November election.
“This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign,” Trump said in a statement. “I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process. Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success.”
Manafort had come under increasing media scrutiny because of his past consulting for the pro-Russian former president of Ukraine.
Photo: AP
Trump on Wednesday named Breitbart News’ Stephen Bannon his campaign chief executive officer and adviser Kellyanne Conway his campaign manager, effectively demoting Manafort amid the Ukraine scrutiny and a string of polls showing Trump badly lagging Clinton.
The personnel moves are far from the only change to Trump’s campaign this week.
At a rally on Thursday in North Carolina, Trump struck a rare note of apology for rhetoric that he acknowledged has offended people. “Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing,” he said. “I have done that, and believe it or not, I regret it.”
On Friday, his campaign also announced it planned to spend about US$5 million to air his first television ads, including one that contrasts him and Clinton on border security, immigration and Syrian refugees.
“I think campaigns have different phases,” US Representative Scott DesJarlais said, one of the first House Republicans to back Trump. “Certainly, Manafort did his job in getting the delegation together and bringing it home at the convention.”
Trump’s campaign is entering a phase where the focus should be on raising money, advertising and Clinton, DesJarlais said.
“He’s in a good position considering we really haven’t gone after Hillary,” DesJarlais said.
The status of Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, was unclear. A campaign official who asked not to be named said Gates was no longer with the organization, but a person close to Gates denied that.
Gates declined to comment.
Gates was on Thursday named in an Associated Press (AP) report that said the two men “never disclosed their work as foreign agents as required under federal law.”
The two have said their work was not the type that required registration, according to AP, which said they declined to comment.
Roger Stone, a former business partner of Manafort, denied that the chairman had quit because of infighting.
“He resigned because he thought the unfair and unfounded attacks on him would become a distraction and he doesn’t want to do anything that hurts the election of Trump,” Stone said. “The idea there was any discord with Bannon or Kelly is just not true. They had everything kind of worked on what they’d do.”
Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s son, also suggested the “distraction” of the Ukraine press was a major factor, according to Fox News.
“I think my father didn’t want to be, you know, distracted by whatever things Paul was dealing with” or to distract from the issues “looming” over Clinton, the network quoted Eric Trump as saying.
Last week was the second major change in Trump campaign leadership. Trump’s first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, exited in June after Manafort was brought on to help smooth Trump’s path to last month’s Republican National Convention where he was formally nominated.
Manafort, a veteran political operative, was seen as capable of professionalizing Trump’s campaign after Lewandowski oversaw a hard-scrabble primary victory.
Lewandowski will not be rejoining the campaign, a person familiar with the matter said.
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