NEW YORK (AP) – Even as he secured a commanding win in his home state of New York on Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is continuing to shake up his campaign with new staff, new strategy and an overhauled campaign structure strikingly late in the game.
After several difficult weeks marked by a series of losses, Trump sounded confident Tuesday night as he predicted victories in upcoming states that would help him clinch the nomination ahead of his party’s convention. But the win comes amid a serious campaign restructuring that has led to confusion about chains of command and less influential roles for Trump’s previously insular inner circle.
Newly-hired campaign veteran Paul Manafort’s role as convention manager has been growing behind the scenes.
“We’re in a different phase of the campaign. And being in a different phase of the campaign requires different skills,” Manafort told reporters after Trump delivered his victory speech in Manhattan. “We’re in a phase where the end game requires winning smart, meaning we have to focus on not just winning the states, but what congressional districts we win and things like that. We’re bringing that into the campaign.”
Trump last month hired Manafort, a veteran of Republican conventions, to oversee his delegate strategy as he scrambles to lock down a majority of delegates by the end of June. The campaign also announced last week that Rick Wiley, who previously managed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign, had been hired as national political director, overseeing the campaign’s field operations. The campaign is expected to announce additional hires soon.