As contested convention looms, Trump to hire ‘seasoned operatives’ to help
Stay caught up with the race.
The 5 big states that will likely decide both nominations
New York
Delegates at stake for the Democrats: 247 Delegates at stake for the Republicans: 95
Pennsylvania
Delegates at stake for the Democrats: 189 Delegates at stake for the Republicans: 71
Indiana
Not a key state for Democrats. Delegates at stake for the Republicans: 57
California
Delegates at stake for the Democrats: 475 Delegates at stake for the Republicans: 172
New Jersey
Not a key state for Republicans. Delegates at stake for the Democrats: 126
Trump may only have himself to blame for recent challenges
Trump's
second-place finish to Cruz in Tuesday's Wisconsin GOP primary may be a
pivot point. No longer does the businessman appear to be invulnerable
to gaffes and mistakes that would have destroyed a more conventional
candidate before the Iowa caucuses.
The strength and the weakness of his unconventional campaign has been Trump himself. He has functioned in many ways as his own chief strategist, political consultant, policy czar and communications guru. But the limitations of that approach have become more apparent.
The strength and the weakness of his unconventional campaign has been Trump himself. He has functioned in many ways as his own chief strategist, political consultant, policy czar and communications guru. But the limitations of that approach have become more apparent.
How Cruz won Wisconsin, in 60 seconds
The upcoming voting schedule
April 9
Wyoming holds it Democratic caucuses.
April 19
New York holds it primaries.
April 26
Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island hold their primaries.
Campaign 2016
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The burst of new hires will have to navigate a political organization unlike that of any modern major presidential candidate, where loyalty is valued above all else and advisers seldom challenge Trump’s vision. Over the past two months, Trump has been growing his campaign staff to deal with a series of unforeseen or underestimated problems, including the need to better monitor delegates to avoid losing more to his chief rival, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.).
A larger staff could limit Trump’s ability to micromanage his campaign, a practice that has proved to be both a benefit and a drawback. An expansion also shifts at least some power away from Trump’s tiny circle of dedicated top aides, most of whom travel nearly everywhere with him: campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, deputy campaign manager Michael Glassner, press secretary Hope Hicks and social media director Daniel Scavino.
Coming off Tuesday’s loss to Cruz in the Wisconsin primary, preparing for the convention and protecting Trump’s delegate count has become one of the campaign’s most urgent priorities. Top aides have assigned several staff members to the cause, and new delegate wrangler Paul Manafort met with his team in New York on Wednesday along with Lewandowski and Glassner.
“The circle is getting wider and wider,” said Barry Bennett, who was former Republican candidate Ben Carson’s campaign manager and is now a senior adviser to Trump. “Corey’s in charge, but we all have access, and we all have our marching orders.”
And buzzing around the campaign is former staffer and ongoing informal adviser Roger Stone, a political operative who has long clashed with Lewandowski. Manafort, who is the latest top addition to the campaign staff, is a longtime Stone ally who is known for managing the 1976 contested convention for Gerald Ford. Manafort also has an apartment at Trump Tower in Manhattan and, over the years, has run into Trump in the elevator and lobby.
In the past month, Trump has found himself even closer to the nomination and under even greater scrutiny, with missteps and gaffes seeming to hurt his candidacy more than before. The campaign announced this week that Trump will soon give a series of policy-focused speeches and will release documentation of his positions on key issues, staples of typical presidential campaigns that he has previously ignored.
Trump sometimes seems ill-prepared for the dozens of interviews he does, despite monitoring the news himself. He has claimed to have not known that asking his followers to pledge their support to him with raised right hands had been compared to a Nazi salute or that one of his chief surrogates — an evangelical pastor from South Carolina — said at a rally that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, needs to “come to Jesus.” Recent interviews with the Washington Post Editorial Board and the New York Times also have exposed large gaps in Trump’s knowledge of foreign affairs. And last week, Trump stumbled through a series of questions about his abortion-related positions.
William J. Bennett, who served as one of Ronald Reagan’s education secretaries and has informally advised Trump on policy, said he has found his conversations with the campaign wanting.
At a rally in Bethpage, N.Y., Ivanka Trump campaigned for her father, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. (Reuters)
Republican consultant Edward J. Rollins said Lewandowski’s challenge will be to expand the campaign’s circle and make peace with party figures rather than antagonize them. Lewandowski’s penchant for traveling with Trump, he said, is another aspect of Trump’s approach that may need calibration.
“A campaign manager’s role is the big picture, to plan out the strategy and execute it and watch everything that’s happening, not just being by the candidate’s side,” Rollins said.
But Trump is Trump, and longtime staffers have said they do not want to stifle their boss’s priorities and authenticity, which has been a key to his success — even as concerned outsiders warn that his style could lose him the election. Trump will frequently respond to news or attacks within minutes, and there appears to be no formal vetting process for the stances he decides to take.
A reminder of the singular nature of the operation came Tuesday night, after Trump lost the Wisconsin primary. Although the state’s delegate count is relatively small, the contest is the only Republican primary during a three-week stretch, and the defeat dampened morale. The campaign released a lengthy and typically Trumpian statement.
“Lyin’ Ted Cruz had the Governor of Wisconsin, many conservative talk radio show hosts, and the entire party apparatus behind him,” read a statement that went on to accuse Cruz of illegally coordinating with a super PAC and included several grammatical errors. “Ted Cruz is worse than a puppet — he is a Trojan horse, being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from Mr. Trump.”
Trump monitored the results at home and quickly shifted his focus to the April 19 primary in his home state of New York, which he has long been determined to win. A Monmouth poll released Wednesday had him at 52 percent, trailed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 25 percent and Cruz in third at 17 percent.
Robert Costa contributed to this report.
Jenna Johnson is a political reporter who is covering the 2016 presidential campaign.
Karen Tumulty is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post.
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contested convention looms, Trump to hire 'seasoned operatives' to help
Washington Post -
