In the wake of Donald Trump's public war of words with the parents of a dead war hero and whatever disgust at it his own party could muster, insiders are claiming his own campaign manager has given up trying to influence him. With his standing in opinion polls headed south with alarming speed, Trump's staff are reportedly "suicidal".
I exchanged messages Tuesday evening with a longtime ally of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, whom I asked about who was calling the shots in the campaign. The response indicated that Manafort, a veteran of Republican politics brought in this spring for the transition from primaries to the general election, has lost control over his candidate.
"Manafort not challenging (Trump) anymore," Manafort's ally wrote. "Mailing it in. Staff suicidal."
Yesterday, an "intervention" was being plotted by allies, with rumors that Trump's first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, might step back into the role — that's if he ever really left it.
Today, though, CNN reports that there's open civil war in the GOP: the party is panicking over what'll happen to the rest of the ticket should Trump get trounced by Hillary Clinton in November.
Donald Trump insisted to a packed audience in Florida Wednesday that the campaign has "never been so well united."
But behind the scenes, an all-out war between the party establishment and conservative base is breaking out — in the halls of Congress, the fight for control of the Senate and in battleground states — all threatening the GOP's chances of winning this fall.
Conservative insurgents in key Senate races are throwing their full-fledged support behind Donald Trump, hoping to foment anger at incumbent Republicans worried that embracing the controversial nominee too tightly could alienate swing voters.
Meanwhile, the rallies are getting nastier than ever.
