GOP Civil War: Trump Camp Officially Severs Ties With Ohio GOP Chairman

The Trump campaign has officially severed ties with Ohio’s Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges just weeks before the presidential election in the must-win battleground, according to a letter sent by Trump’s Ohio state director.

After Borges expressed concerns about Trump’s tactics in numerous interviews this week, the Trump campaign wrote in a letter that “Chairman Borges does not represent or speak for the candidate and he no longer has any affiliation with the Trump-Pence campaign.”

“This past week, Chairman Borges conduced a self-promotional media tour with state and national outlets to criticize our party’s nominee. I have no idea what game he was playing,” wrote Trump’s Ohio state director Robert Paduchik in the letter flagged by the Columbus Dispatch. “It’s no great secret that Chairman Borges was never fully on board, but his actions over the last week demonstrate that his loyalties to Gov. John Kasich’s failed presidential campaign eclipse his responsibility as chairman of the Ohio Republican Party.”

Paduchik also wrote that he believed Borges was laying the groundwork for an “all but declared campaign for Republican National Committee Chairman.”

Paduchik said that Trump himself was very disappointed with Borges’ behavior

“Mr. Trump told me, ‘this is why people have lost faith in the establishment and party leaders,’” Paduchik wrote.

Infighting between the Trump campaign and the Ohio GOP have been ongoing, according to a report from NBC News. NBC reported that earlier this year a communications staffer from the Ohio GOP had to be relocated after they didn’t see eye to eye with Paduchik.

Borges responded Saturday with a statement that he would continue working to elect Republican candidates up and down the ballot including the Trump campaign.

“I won’t let a staffer’s ego get in the way of us doing all we can to win elections up and down the ballot this year,” Borges said according to NBC.