Political Wire

Trump Fires His Campaign Manager

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Donald Trump “is parting ways with his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, a move that comes as the presumptive Republican nominee faces challenges as it moves toward the general election,” the New York Times reports.

“One person briefed on the moves, who asked not to be identified, said the campaign had long planned adjustments to adjust to the needs of a general election campaign. Mr. Trump has recently seen his standing dropping in recent national polls, and is now facing a barrage of ads by Hillary Clinton and her allies.”

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3 Ways Trump Isn’t Even Trying

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Forget Donald Trump’s slipping national poll numbers. Forget that he’s alienated most Republican elected officials. Forget that he says something highly controversial almost daily.

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Trump Falls Into the Same Trap as Romney Did

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“In the 2012 presidential campaign, June was a pivotal month for President Obama’s re-election efforts. Mitt Romney had emerged from a slashing primary race close to broke, looking to get to the nominating convention so he could reset his candidacy and get an infusion of cash,” the New York Times reports.

“While there is little that is similar between the candidacies of Mr. Romney and Donald J. Trump, the result may end up being the same.”

“Mr. Romney was defined by a brutal series of television ads aired by both Priorities USA, the super PAC supporting Mr. Obama, and his campaign. Mr. Romney, in those renderings, was a heartless corporate raider who talked about liking to fire people who did not provide good services, and whose private equity firm feasted on the modest-wage jobs of hard-working people. Mr. Romney never recovered.”

Trump Gathers Aides to Reassess Strategy

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Donald Trump “is gathering his top lieutenants, including members of his family, in New York on Monday to discuss a political strategy shift as he looks to move beyond recent missteps,” Bloomberg reports.

“Trump is facing pressure from within his own inner circle — including from donors — who are growing increasingly frustrated with what they see as a lack of coordination and communication, members of Trump’s staff told Bloomberg Politics, at a crucial moment in the presidential race.”

“There’s also a growing impatience among some on Trump’s payroll that the candidate has failed to fill key roles within his campaign, including traveling press secretary and communications director, while Democrat Hillary Clinton’s synchronized political machine capitalized on a string of negative Trump headlines.”

The Impossible Job of Speaking for Trump

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Olivia Nuzzi profiles Donald Trump’s press secretary Hope Hicks, who wouldn’t speak to her but instead referred her to the candidate himself:

I wanted Hicks to help me understand just how all this had come to pass, how a person who’d never worked in politics had nonetheless become the most improbably important operative in this election. But she declined my request to talk. Instead, she arranged something more surreal: I could talk about her with Donald Trump, in front of her.

Anti-Trump Effort Claims Momentum

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“Supporters of a growing anti-Donald Trump movement announced plans Sunday to raise money for staff and a possible legal defense fund as they asked new recruits to help spread the word with less than a month until the Republican National Convention,” the Washington Post reports.

“Having started with just a few dozen delegates, organizers also said Sunday that they now count several hundred delegates and alternates as part of their campaign.”

“The group is led by delegates seeking to block Trump at the GOP convention next month in Cleveland by changing party rules so that they can vote however they want — instead of in line with the results of state caucuses and primaries. It is quickly emerging as the most organized effort to stop Trump and coincides with his declining poll numbers.”

Trump’s Campaign Is Cratering

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Washington Post: “Not only are Trump’s poll numbers slipping, they are at a low that no one, Republican or Democrat, has seen in the past three election cycles. Looking at the window of time between 200 and 100 days before each of those elections, you can see that Trump has consistently polled worse than George W. Bush in 2004, John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. He caught up briefly after clinching the GOP nomination — and then sank again.”

“There’s every reason to think that those numbers will get worse. Trump essentially has no campaign at this point; there’s no sign that he has started staffing up significantly.”

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One More Way Clinton Is Crushing Trump

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This piece is only available to Political Wire members.

According to Quantcast, Donald Trump’s website received roughly 600K visits in May. His biggest month over the last year was April at nearly 800K visits.

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Members get Taegan Goddard’s analysis, every feature on the site and no ads.

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Ryan Says He Has to Support Trump

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House Speaker Paul Ryan “says it’s his responsibility to support Donald Trump, even if the presumptive Republican nominee’s bombast occasionally makes him uncomfortable,” Politico reports.

Said Ryan: “I feel like I have certain responsibilities, as not just Congressman Paul Ryan from the First District of Wisconsin, but as Speaker of the House. And imagine the Speaker of the House not supporting the duly elected nominee of our party, therefore creating a chasm in our party to split us in half, which basically helps deny us the White House, and strong majorities in Congress.”

Trump’s Short List for Veep Includes Four

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Politico reports that Donald Trump’s “own toxicity is making the job of finding a vice presidential nominee that much easier, because the short list is so short.”

“Multiple high-level Republican sources said it is topped by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, with Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions a distant third and Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin also in the mix.”

The Hill: Trump veepstakes in overdrive

Trump Says Armed Clubgoers Could Have Killed Shooter

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Donald Trump “argued again that the mass shooting in Orlando, could have been less deadly had people in the gay nightclub been able to shoot back,” The Hill reports.

Said Trump: “If we had people with the bullets going in the opposite direction — right smack between the eyes of this maniac. If some of those wonderful people had guns strapped right here, right to their waist or right to their ankle, and this son of a bitch comes out and starts shooting, and one of the people in that room happened to have it and goes boom, boom, you know what? That would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight, folks, that would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight.”

Trump Outsources His Ground Game to RNC

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Associated Press: “The unconventional approach reflects Trump’s disdain for traditional Republican campaign practices and inclination to implement businesslike decision-making. It also carries substantial risk.”

“If, for instance, Trump is lagging Clinton badly in polls come early fall, there is nothing to stop the RNC from cutting its losses and focusing instead on saving Republican control of the Senate or other competitive contests also on the ballot this November.”

Also interesting: “The RNC in recent days hired Trump’s former political director, Rick Wiley, just weeks after he was fired by the campaign. The move took some of Trump’s senior team by surprise, despite the RNC’s insistence that it had the campaign’s blessing.”

Trump Admits He’s Trailing In the Polls

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Donald Trump “rarely, if ever, acknowledges he might be losing at anything… So it was surprising when Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said on Thursday night that he is not beating Hillary Clinton in the most recent presidential polls,” the New York Times reports.

Said Trump: “I’m four down in one poll, three and a half in another that just came out, and I haven’t started yet.”

He added: “And I have tremendous Republican support. Unfortunately they never talk about that, they talk about the few rebels.”

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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