According to interviews with more than a dozen people on or close to the campaign, staffers are increasingly dividing themselves into competing factions aligned with Trump’s three top officials – embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who still commands deep loyalty among many of the people he hired; deputy campaign manager Michael Glassner, who has a growing group of supporters; and newly hired strategist Paul Manafort, who was elevated this week and is building his own fiefdom.
Trump’s expansion of Manafort’s portfolio to include a wide swath of campaign strategy, coupled with other related moves, were intended partly to address organizational deficiencies in a campaign run for months by Lewandowski – one that underestimated rival Ted Cruz’s ability to compete and failed to prepare for the delegate battle that will decide a contested GOP convention…
In California, Trump’s aides are still looking for a campaign manager, and in New Jersey, the second-highest ranking staffer left this week. The states hold potentially determinative primary elections on June 7, the last day of voting.
“There is nothing,” said a person familiar with Trump’s footprint in California. “There’s a lot of good volunteers and that’s about it.”
In Indiana, where early voting began this week ahead of a May 3 primary that’s also a big prize, volunteers are complaining about the weak organization. “There’s no ground game in Indiana,” said a person involved in coordinating campaign volunteers. “I’ve got state team leaders in Indiana who’ve been furious for months … they’ve had no campaign material, no ground game, no nothing and they’re going into these states 15, 20 days before the primary and it’s just too late.”
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