GOP wants Trump campaign ‘reset’
Frustrated party insiders urge nominee to stay on message, smooth relations with Ryan
WASHINGTON— The Republican Party was in turmoil again Wednesday as party leaders, strategists and donors voiced increasing alarm about the flailing state of Donald Trump’s candidacy and fears that the presidential nominee was damaging the party with an extraordinary week of selfinflicted mistakes, gratuitous attacks and missed opportunities.
Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus was described as “very frustrated” and stressed by Trump’s behaviour over the past week, having run out of excuses to make on the nominee’s behalf, according to multiple people familiar with the events.
Meanwhile, Trump’s top campaign advisers are failing to instill discipline on their candidate, who has spent the past few days lunging from one controversy to another while skipping chances to go on the offensive against his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
“A new level of panic hit the street,” said veteran operative Scott Reed, chief strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “It’s time for a serious reset.” Trump allies on Wednesday publicly urged the candidate to reboot, furious that he has allowed his confrontation with the parents of dead U.S. army captain Humayun Khan to continue for nearly a week.
They also are angry with Trump over his refusal to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, or Arizona Sen. John McCain — two of the party’s top elected officials — in their upcoming primary campaigns.
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, one of Trump’s most loyal defenders, warned that his friend was in danger of throwing away the election and helping to make Clinton president unless he quickly changes course.
“The current race is which of these two is the more unacceptable, because right now neither of them is acceptable,” Gingrich said.
“Trump is helping her to win by proving he is more unacceptable than she is.”
Gingrich said Trump has only a matter of weeks to reverse course.
“Anybody who is horrified by Hillary should hope that Trump will take a deep breath and learn some new skills,” he said. “He cannot win the presidency operating the way he is now.” Reed, who managed Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, recommended that Trump “stop doing silly interviews nine times a day that get you off message” and deliver a major address seeking to reset the campaign.
Reed said such a pivot is “mandatory” for Trump to be successful, as is smoothing relations with Ryan, McCain and other GOP leaders.
“If Trump decides he wants to go it alone, it is a lonely road,” he said.
Reports that senior Republicans were planning an intervention by Gingrich, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and other Trump loyalists to settle the candidate were dismissed by campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Still, one GOP strategist familiar with the discussions underway suggested a more informal meeting might occur.
If not with outsiders, it would take place with members of Trump’s family, who have exerted the most influence on him at past moments of crisis.
“I think there’s a lot of people talking about who they would get together. But it hasn’t happened yet,” said the strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the confidential discussions.
Friends and associates of Manafort disputed reports that the senior adviser had given up on Trump, describing him as committed to a successful campaign.
But they said he has been frustrated by Trump’s apparent lack of discipline.
“Paul has good influence with Donald,” said Charlie Black, a longtime GOP strategist and former business partner of Manafort. “But he’s Donald and he’s going to operate stream of consciousness a lot of times. You just hope he’ll have more days on message than days on consciousness.”
Asecond Republican strategist who also knows Manafort said he believes Trump’s campaign manager will be doing everything he can to get the operation on track.
“He’s the most aggressive guy I’ve ever met,” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
“My guess is he’s trying to make the best of this for the campaign.”
This strategist added, “But this is not the plan. There’s no way to explain that this is what you want done in the middle of your campaign. So there is a level of frustration that there isn’t more message discipline. But with Donald Trump, that’s what you get.”