Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort has resigned, in the latest convulsion to sweep a candidacy reeling from poor polling numbers and self-inflicted controversy.
With voters able to cast absentee ballots in the crucial swing state of North Carolina in just three weeks and his poll numbers sliding rapidly, the Republican nominee ousted his campaign chairman on Friday, only two months after the forced departure of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
Manafort’s exit followed another unconventional move by Trump, who hours earlier had admitted that he “regretted” the pain caused by some of his intemperate remarks this year.
“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, in tightly scripted remarks said to bear the hallmark of new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.
Though the apology at a rally in North Carolina did not specify precisely whom he was saying sorry to, it was the first acknowledgment by the candidate that his swashbuckling style was proving self-destructive.
News of Manafort’s resignation also came as a surprise to some within the campaign, and followed a slew of denials that a shakeup was under way.
“I would have thought we were done with revolving chairs,” one source familiar with the campaign told the Guardian after the publication of Friday’s statement.
Another person familiar with the shakeup said the change underlined how Manafort had never quite been able to communicate with Trump the way Lewandowski had. His departure meant Conway would be in charge of the messaging, whereas Bannon, a former banker, was there to run the business side of the campaign.
It was also pointed out that Trump had long been uncomfortable with the campaign spending heavily to buy television commercials, a step that was taken earlier this week with Trump shelling out $4m to go on the air in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. “He thinks he is being robbed,” said the source familiar with the shakeup. “Boots on the ground are worth it” but “media buys, mail and other stuff” were looked on by Trump skeptically.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump’s son Eric suggested that the controversy over Manafort’s ties to Russia and a report this week that he had potentially committed a felony by evading the reporting requirements of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) led to the top operative being pushed out. “My father just didn’t want to have the distraction looming over the campaign, and, quite frankly, looming over all the issues Hillary is facing right now,” said the younger Trump.
Manafort, a veteran political strategist, has been under mounting scrutiny as more details emerged of his role in advising foreign politicians, including Ukrainian strongman Viktor Yanukovych.
His close connections to Russia through Yanukovych, at a time when Trump is trying to criticise Clinton for taking money from foreign donors for her family foundation, were proving a growing problem.
Manafort first joined the campaign as an unpaid adviser in March after Trump had been repeatedly outmaneuvered in the delegation selection process by rival Ted Cruz. The veteran operative, who helped Gerald Ford win the last contested convention in American history in 1976, soon used that foothold to expand his mandate. Within weeks, he had in effect replaced former campaign manager Lewandowski, who was disdained by many within the party establishment as well as the Trump family.
In a statement issued on Friday, Trump suggested Manafort’s role had peaked as an adviser during the Republican national convention in Cleveland, where rival Ted Cruz had threatened to lead a revolt, but this time expressed no regret over the departure.
“This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign,” said a statement from the Trump campaign issued on Friday morning. “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.”
The resignation, which contradicts claims Manafort would stay on earlier in the week, is the second moment Trump has exercised his famed slogan “you’re fired” – following the ousting of Lewandowski, in June.
Lewandowski is now thought likely to make a comeback within the constantly shifting Trump inner circle, as he favours the same approach of “letting Trump be Trump” as Bannon is believed to.
Trump also appeared rattled by recent opinion polling which suggests he is far adrift of where he needs to be to challenge Clinton in crucial swing states. The urgent need to confront his collapse in the polls suggests expediency, rather than a personality, may have been the largest factor leading to Manafort’s departure.
At a rally on Friday night in Dimondale, Michigan, he again read off a prepared speech, with no mention of polls or crowds – two of his favorite topics for months of rallies. Instead he urged African Americans to join his “change movement”, saying, “to those hurting, I say: what do you have to lose by trying something new?”
Signs of the old Trump did break through his restrained performance. At one point he went off-script, riffing to the mostly white crowd, “I am nothing more than your messenger.”
“Strong defense, common sense, take care of our vets,” he rhymed. “I am the change agent.”
Amid the Trump campaign shakeup and the apologetic address on Thursday night, Democrats rejected the notion of a new-look Trump on Friday, ridiculing a new emphasis on unifying the country that emerged on the same day as a campaign ad attacking immigrants.
“In case you thought for a split second Trump was genuine about feeling regret, he is back to demonizing immigrants again in his new ad today,” said Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon.
