Trump campaign chief Manafort resigns
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Paul Manafort resigned as chairman of Donald Trump’s US presidential campaign on Friday, no longer enjoying the full confidence of a Republican candidate who is trying to boost his flagging White House bid.
Trump said in a statement he had accepted Manafort’s resignation, but did not offer an explanation for the departure.
It came in a week when Trump has already reshuffled top campaign leaders, effectively demoting Manafort, and has tried to be more disciplined and on message as he seeks to reset his campaign against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for the Nov. 8 election.
Trump’s son, Eric Trump, said unflattering headlines about Manafort were taking a toll.
“I think my father didn’t want to be, you know, distracted by, you know, whatever things that, you know, Paul was dealing with,” he told
Fox News, while also praising Manafort’s work for the campaign.
Questions have arisen about Manafort’s previous work for the political party of the Kremlin- backed former Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yanukovich.
Another person close to the campaign said Trump had been unhappy with Manafort for a variety of reasons. Manafort, who first joined the campaign in March, had presided over a period in which Trump had formally sealed the Republican presidential nomination after seeing off 16 rivals.
But the New York businessman, who has never held elected office, has also been embroiled in a series of controversies in recent weeks and has lagged Clinton in opinion polls.
Clinton leads Trump by eight percentage points among likely voters, according to a Reuters/ Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday. The Aug. 14-18 online poll showed that Clinton was supported by 42 percent of Americans who are expected to vote, compared with 34 percent for Trump. Some 23 percent would not side with either candidate.
On Wednesday, Trump overhauled his campaign team, hiring the head of conservative website Breitbart News, Stephen Bannon, as chief executive of the campaign in a move that bolstered his combative image. Trump also promoted adviser Kellyanne Conway, a data-driven political analyst, to campaign manager.