Donald Trump’s newly-minted convention top gun Paul Manafort said he doesn’t answer to campaign manager Corey Lewandowki after news of Manafort taking a more involved role in the billionaire’s campaign.
“I work directly for the boss,” Manafort, a seasoned Republican operative, said Friday morning on CNN. But he downplayed the announcement as a campaign shakeup, saying while he listens to everyone, “I have one man who’s voice is louder than anyone else’s.”
Under his leadership, Manafort said Trump would wrap up the convention process by June, when it would be “apparent to the world” the real estate mogul is the Republican party’s presumptive nominee.
When pressed about his optimistic view of Trump’s chances of arriving at the convention with the magic number of delegates needed, Manafort responded, “I’ve done this a lot” and referenced his role in the 1976 brokered convention, when he helped President Gerald Ford beat out Ronald Reagan in a close race.
The Trump campaign announced Thursday that Manafort would take a more involved role in campaign moving toward the convention, which was widely read as a transfer of power away from Lewandowki as a possible convention battle materializes on the horizon.
Lewandowski, a key Trump confidant and gatekeeper for the candidate, reportedly clashed with Manafort, who was brought on board last month. Lewandowski currently faces misdemeanor battery charges in Florida stemming from a physical run-in with a reporter.
