Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Trump Campaign Re-Organizes Again

The Trump for President campaign is undergoing another reorganization. Two months ago, Paul Manafort (long time lobbyist and political consultant) replaced Corey Lewandowski (New England political campaigner) at the top of the org-chart. Now, Mr. Manafort will lose some of his powers to Stephen Bannon (a rich ex-banker who funds the Breitbart propaganda service) and to Kellyanne Conway (a pollster and shill who has known Mr. Trump for years). The change stems from the candidate's desire to return to Mr. Lewandowski's mantra "let Trump be Trump." At this stage, Mr. Trump should probably do that. If one is going to re-arrange the deckchairs on the Titanic, one ought to be pleased with their design.

The usual inane statement came from the campaign after several news outlets reported the change. Mr. Trump's statement read in part "I have known Steve and Kellyanne both for many years. They are extremely capable, highly qualified people who love to win and know how to win. I believe we're adding some of the best talents in politics, with the experience and expertise needed to defeat Hillary Clinton in November and continue to share my message and vision to Make America Great Again."

Another statement read, "These announcements come at a time of significant growth for Mr. Trump's campaign, with the first major TV ad buy of the general election slated to start later this week and with additional top-flight operatives joining the movement on a near-daily basis."

Meanwhile, Mr. Manafort will remain campaign chairman, and he's playing ball with Mr. Trump. He issued his own statement that assured the world the rearrangement of responsibilities would "undoubtedly help take the campaign to new levels of success."

One doubts that is will. The Clinton campaign has been on the air for a month, and the Trump campaign is only going on the air now. Polls in swing states show that Colorado and Virginia are out of reach for Mr. Trump owing to that strategic blunder. If Mrs. Clinton's lead in even one of the small swing states (Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire) holds up, she will win. Indeed, this journal has long believed that North Carolina is going to be a Republican state in November, but the polls are saying otherwise.

Adding a banker-propagandist and a pollster to the campaign structure may bring benefits, but neither of the new appointees has the experience nor demonstrated any talent for a Get Out the Vote effort (GOTV). That is what should have been built during the primary season, or at very least, should have been created in June and July.

Buzzfeed reported a couple of days ago that the Trump operation in key states is weak. "In North Carolina, it's not entirely clear where the campaign is headquartered. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, volunteers have opened makeshift field offices. . . . In key swing states like Florida, the campaign has been operating a bare-bones operation, with one office in Sarasota and four staff."

Buzzfeed noted that the real problem is integration of personnel into a coherent structure. "They have had a lot of trouble integrating original Trump staff with new folks," said one Republican operative familiar with the campaign. "And they have regional directors whose authority level is very unclear over states in their region." Another RNC staffer said, "I think there has been a level of the Trump campaign trying to come in and act like they are the big boys on the block as opposed to a partnership."

This can be fixed, certainly. The doubts arise when one asks if they can be fixed in time to have a positive effect on the campaign outcome. They increase when one asks if Mr. Bannon and Ms. Conway are capable of fixing it quickly. One wouldn't be surprised to find another reorganization at the end of September.

© Copyright 2016 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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