Following news reports that Donald Trump’s field director had resigned amidst changes in the staff hierarchy at the campaign, Trump lashed out at Politico and the New York Daily News during a Tuesday morning interview on “Fox and Friends.”
Politico was the first to report that the campaign’s field director, Stuart Jolly, resigned from the campaign after new Trump aides Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley were given a larger role. According to Politico, Trump indicated at a Saturday meeting with top staffers that Manafort and Wiley would take charge of the remaining May and June primaries.
On Tuesday morning, Trump did not deny that the shakeup took place, but said he was not at the Saturday meeting. And he railed against Politico and other members of the media when asked if there was any truth to reports about the campaign restructuring.
“Well, I must tell you, between the Daily News and Politico, two failing papers that I hear are going out of business — I hear the Daily News is shutting down and Politico covers me so inaccurate [sic]. They write stories and they don’t even call,” Trump told “Fox and Friends.” “With all of that being said, I was not at a meeting. I heard about a meeting that I attended.”
“I was not even at a meeting. Nobody called me from Politico,” the real estate mogul continued.” These guys write stories — it’s not necessarily a bad story — but they write stories. They have no facts. They never even call.”
After calling the media “dishonest,” Trump praised his campaign team.
“I brought in Paul Manafort, who’s a total professional, won tremendous numbers of races. Corey’s done an excellent job. Everybody seems to be getting along pretty well,” he said.
Trump was then asked whether members of the campaign staff were upset with the increased power given to Manafort and Wiley.
“When you bring in new people — and we’re bringing in very high-level people,” Trump responded. “So when you bring other people in, I can see some people, their feelings get a little bit hurt. I don’t know most of these people — field people.”
