Campaign staffers for Donald Trump are expected to meet with senior officials at the Republican National Committee on Friday in Orlando after a tumultuous few weeks that have seen the Republican nominee fall behind in the polls.
One Republican operative who works with the campaign told Politico that the sit-down would be a “come-to-Jesus” moment for RNC officials who have been unable to keep their unwieldy candidate in line.
The Trump campaign dismissed that categorization, insisting it was a regularly scheduled meeting between the nominee and party officials.
“This is a typical meeting,” senior advisor Karen Giorno, who is attending the meeting in Trump’s place, told Politico. “There’s no consternation. These are meetings we’re having in the battleground states to get it all going. We keep seeing these reports that there’s a rift between Reince [Priebus] and the boss and it’s just false.”
Those reports were fueled this week by an open letter 70 Republicans planned to send to Priebus urging him to shift resources away from Trump and toward House and Senate races instead.
The RNC has provided much of the campaign infrastructure for Trump in key battleground states, where his team neglected to set up its own get-out-the-vote efforts.
Trump has maintained that his popularity with supporters is all he needs to win in November, even as his poll numbers have sank in traditionally Republican states including Iowa and Utah.
“I don’t know that we need to get out the vote,” he said in a Thursday interview on Fox News. “I think people that really want to vote, they’re gonna just get up and vote for Trump.”
Trump also dismissed the request made in the open letter, saying the RNC was only able to raise funds because he was the head of the party.
“I’m the one raising that’s funding [sic], I’m the one that’s raising the money and other people are getting to use the money that I raised,” he said.
