With Advisers Feuding and Numbers Plummeting, Trump Eyes Campaign Shake-up

[brooklynite]

Vanity Fair

With the coronavirus death toll surpassing 80,000 and the unemployment rate at Great Depression-era levels, there is a growing consensus among senior Republicans that Donald Trump’s reelection is slipping away. Recent internal polls show Trump trailing Joe Biden in six swing states, a data point that augurs a landslide loss in November. “The swing state polls are horrific,” a prominent Republican briefed on the numbers told me. The White House’s COVID-19 outbreak is only the latest headline that reinforces the narrative that Trump can’t get control of the pandemic. “This is what should worry the campaign: Biden is in his basement and he’s beating Trump,” a former West Wing staffer told me. “If I were Biden, the lesson I would learn is: Shut the fuck up and let Trump go out there and destroy himself.”

Seeking to change the trajectory of the race, Trump is now discussing a shake-up to his campaign leadership, three sources close to the White House told me. Two sources said Trump has told people he wants to install 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in a senior role. “Trump’s feeling is, ‘why are we losing everywhere?’ The president is sick of it,” another former West Wing official said. According to a source, Lewandowski has told Trump that the RNC doesn’t grasp how dire the polls are. “Corey thinks the GOP isn’t solid on fundamentals. He says the campaign and the party spend time sending out press releases bragging about how well they’re doing,” the former official said. (Tim Murtaugh, communications director for the Trump campaign, said in an email, “literally none of this is true.”)

Trump’s interest in Lewandowski has sparked conflict with Jared Kushner, two sources said. “There’s a battle over personnel,” a former West Wing official said. Kushner is strongly opposed to Lewandowski joining the campaign, sources said. Kushner led the effort to force out Lewandowski in 2016, and has since successfully kept Lewandowski on the outer edge of Trump’s orbit. According to two sources, Kushner is trying to recruit Mike Pence’s former chief of staff Nick Ayers to take a senior campaign role. In 2018, Kushner recruited Ayers to replace John Kelly as Trump’s chief of staff. Ayers turned down the offer, and sources said he has no interest in joining the Trump campaign. One person close to Ayers told me he’s aligning himself with Nikki Haley to lead her potential 2024 campaign. “He views Haley as the right train to be on,” the source said.

Trump and campaign manager Brad Parscale’s relationship has been fraying for weeks, sources said. Trump was said to be annoyed last month about a largely positive profile of Parscale in the New York Times Magazine. Trump had already been irked by Parscale because of the talk that Parscale, a former website designer from San Antonio, had made millions of dollars through his companies from Trump’s campaigns and bought a Ferrari. “The money is the biggest issue for Trump,” a former West Wing official said. A few days before the Times Magazine piece was published, Trump called Parscale and reportedly threatened to sue him for the campaign’s weak poll numbers. According to a source briefed on the widely reported call, Parscale told Trump to blame the campaign’s struggle on Kushner. “Brad said, ‘Blame the people Jared brought in,’” the source said. (Parscale did not respond to a request for comment.)

[Iliyah]

1. The whole White House has been in turmoil since t-rump graced . . .

his ugly self in there. Nothing new except lives are being lost daily and he and his administration along with the republican party do not care.

[Hoyt]

2. He did this in summer of 2016 when he was falling behind in primaries, brought in Conway and Bannon

to attract racists to the polls.

[underpants]

3. Okay I learned a word today

augur

[Mike 03]

4. Every single option in this article that Trump is considering is a bad option.

Trump has been talking about bringing Lewandowski back for months. Bring it! That'll be a disaster. Jared wants Ayers; Ayers doesn't want the job. "Blame China" vs. "Transitioning to Greatness"? What a stink bomb!

[Botany]

5. "Donald Trump's reelection ... "

Trump was never elected in the 1st place. He was installed by Vlad/Russia, corrupt
Trump campaign workers, dirty GOP people (McConnell I'm looking @ you), and Fox
News.

[FakeNoose]

6. Please, please, please fire Brad Parscale

Put Kushner in charge, he'll screw it up good.

Parscale - once he's fired - will write a tell-all book that would send every one of these guys packing, and maybe put many of them in jail. We're going to see a Chump circular firing squad in action FINALLY!

[Phoenix61]

7. Twitler screws everyone he does business

with. He never accepts blame so it always lands on those around him. It was just a matter of time until he blamed Parscale who I don’t see taking it well.

[Yavin4]

8. "Nick Ayers views Niki Haley as the right train to be on." That is hysterical. Wow! HaHaHaHa!

What the Republicans are going to learn is that their beloved party has been changed forever. There's no way that they can go back to regular politicians, esp. ethnic pols. That old dude from "Duck Dynasty" has a better chance of getting the nomination than Haley.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

9. Rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic