Donald Trump’s new campaign team has only been in place for a few days and the changes are already noticeable. The Republican presidential nominee now delivers prepared remarks even at his rallies. His tone is more presidential. He is finally running his first ads of the general election.
Washington Examiner reports:
Will new campaign chief executive Stephen Bannon and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway prove to be the dynamic duo Trump needs to get his flagging presidential campaign back on track? Or will their stylistic differences produce the kind of divisions that plagued the partnership between Paul Manafort and Corey Lewandowski?
Bannon’s hire got the most attention and dismayed Republican insiders. Reports announcing his formal role in the campaign referred to him as a “media firebrand,” “the most dangerous political operative in America,” a “legitimately sinister figure,” a bare-knuckled brawler.
Under Bannon’s leadership, the Breitbart news and commentary site has been increasingly drawn to the nationalist, populist version of conservatism animating Trump’s “America First” politics. The site has also bitterly opposed party leaders — leaked emails showed Bannon himself describing them in less than flattering terms — and almost singlehandedly drove Paul Nehlen’s failed primary challenge against House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Conway has never run a presidential campaign, but she is widely respected in Republican circles as a consummate political professional. She is a passionate pro-life social conservative who only boarded the Trump train once he had vanquished all his primary opponents. And Trump’s recent speeches expressing regret for hurtful words, reaching out beyond his base, sounding more consistent with the seriousness of the job he is seeking, sound a lot more like her than Bannon.
“Bannon, like the candidate, relies a lot more on his gut,” said Republican strategist Liz Mair, a Gary Johnson supporter who was active against Trump during the primaries. “Kellayanne is poll-tested and data-driven.”
Read the full article at: Washington Examiner
