WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s troubled reelection bid entered a new phase on Thursday after a shake-up of the leadership put a longtime Republican political strategist in charge of reinstating the campaign even when Trump refuses to show more discipline.
FILE PHOTO: United States President Donald Trump speaks about Trump’s infrastructure management plans during an event at the United Parcel Service (UPS) Airport facility in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 15 de July 2020. REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst
Bill Stepien’s promotion to campaign manager less than four months until the Nov. 3 election is expected to sharpen the Trump team’s focus on the strategy needed to boost votes for the Republican incumbent in critical battlefield states, the sources said.
Trump is following Democratic challenger Joe Biden in national and battlefield state opinion polls, as voters blame the president for his handling of the coronavrius pandemic, race relations and the economic downturn.
Stepien has a deep understanding of the data and how to use the information to deploy resources and target voters, said Mike DuHaime, a Republican strategist who worked with him on Chris Christie’s two successful races for governor in New Jersey.
“There are not that many campaign veterans in the upper ranks of the Trump campaign,” DuHaime said. “Bill has worked on campaigns at all levels. He can dispassionately read the numbers and know what to do with them. ”
But it’s unclear whether Stepien will be able to do what other top Trump advisers couldn’t: control an impetuous and undisciplined president who has yet to produce a second-term agenda.
Stepien’s elevation is expected to enhance the power of Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, who is playing a leading role in the reelection effort, sources familiar with the situation said.
“He’s 100% a Jared guy,” said a Trump adviser. “Jared is still running the campaign.”
CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP
In what amounted to a handover ceremony, Stepien and the man he replaced, Brad Parscale, appeared together at the campaign headquarters outside Washington on Thursday and spoke to campaign staff.
Trump abruptly demoted Parscale in a Facebook post Wednesday night. The president had been privately complaining about Parscale for weeks as his political problems deepened, two advisers said.
Aides describe Trump as eager for his sad poll numbers and eager to know if they are true, but also resistant to changing their ways.
A campaign official said Stepien urged the team to “fight as if it were their own campaign every day” and said the focus would be on securing a strong voter game to bring Trump supporters to the polls.
Stepien is a veteran of President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign and John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. He worked for the Trump campaign in 2016 and was political director of the White House during the midterm elections. from 2018.
Stepien and the Trump campaign did not respond to an interview request.
In a campaign statement on the “state of the race,” Stepien said: “The same media polls that made the world convince that Hillary Clinton would be elected in 2016 are trying the same trick again in 2020. It won’t work.”
The Trump campaign has been criticized for not defining Biden and establishing contrasts between Trump and Biden’s visions for the nation. DuHaime said he hopes Stepien helps refine the message.
“That will be the challenge for the campaign, but I think they realize that and now they will work hard to address it,” DuHaime said.
Advisers said Stepien, the aversive protagonist, prefers a behind-the-scenes role that would be fine for a traditional president, but that could affect Trump, who likes to see his team members publicly defending him.
“Trump wants fighters on television,” said an adviser.
Reports by Steve Holland and Jarrett Renshaw; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason; Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis Edition
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