Return of all the ‘crazies’ as Trump calls in the old guard

Paul Manafort, Corey Lewandowski and Roger Stone tipped to rejoin former president’s election campaign team after helping him win in 2016

Corey ­Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s first campaign manager, was sacked over ­accusations of inappropriate ­behaviour. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump is poised to bring back some of the radical right-wingers from his first White House run amid signs he is relaxing the highly disciplined campaign that won him the Republican presidential nomination.

Senior figures from the past in talks to return include Corey ­Lewandowski, his first campaign manager, who was sacked over ­accusations of inappropriate ­behaviour, and Paul Manafort, his second campaign manager, who went to jail for bank and tax fraud.

Roger Stone, the disgraced ­veteran political operator, has ­increasingly appeared at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. Stone, an adviser to the successful 2016 campaign, was convicted of making false statements to congress and witness tampering before Mr Trump commuted his 40-month sentence.

The re-emergence of a cast of characters associated with his disorganised earlier run comes after a long battle by Mr Trump’s current campaign managers to keep ­extreme figures away. Efforts by Mr Trump to bring in Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist, were reportedly rebuffed by Susie Wiles, the campaign manager behind the professional approach.

Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s second campaign manager, went to jail for bank and tax fraud. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump’s well co-ordinated “ground game” in Iowa was credited to Ms Wiles and Chris LaCivita, another seasoned operative, the de facto co-managers of the 2024 campaign. Hundreds of “caucus captains” were identified and trained across the state, ensuring the resounding defeat of Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who at one time appeared to be a serious rival.

Mr Trump, 77, is said to have ­remained close to Mr Manafort, 74, who previously advised Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrain­ian leader. A bipartisan Senate committee concluded that Mr Manafort’s links to Russian intelligence figures posed a “grave counterintelligence threat”. “Bringing back Paul Manafort, who was after all on the payroll of a Kremlin puppet in Ukraine, is exceptionally disturbing,” said David Cay Johnston, author of The Making of Donald Trump. “The competent people he’s had, they always go. He appointed a pretty good chief of staff in John Kelly and now he says the guy’s crazy.”

Mr Trump’s takeover of the Republican National Committee under his handpicked co-chairs Michael Whatley and Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, has provided a berth for his acolytes, especially as it approaches the July ­national convention when he will be formally named as nominee and unveil his running-mate.

Roger Stone, an adviser to the successful 2016 campaign, was convicted of making false statements to congress and witness tampering. Picture: AFP

One new recruit to the RNC is Christina Bobb, a former reporter with the One America News Network who has been appointed senior counsel for election integrity. Bobb wrote a book that supported Mr Trump’s unfounded conspiracy theory that the last election was stolen from him.

Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist who co-founded the Lincoln Project, predicted that the former president would attract more cranks the closer he got to power.

“The people around him this time will not be restrained by any grown-ups or adults or establishment Washington types. It’s going to all be the crazies – they’re going to go absolutely wild with this guy,” he told MSNBC.

Mr Trump meanwhile edged closer to taking a definitive view on the legal timeframe for abortion. He has sought to distance himself from the restrictive laws passed in Republican-controlled states in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to end the five-decade ­national right to abortion. Democrats have been successfully pushing reproductive freedom as a campaign issue since the 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade was made possible by the three conservative judges appointed by Mr Trump.

“The number of weeks, now, people are agreeing on 15 and I’m thinking in terms of that. And it’ll come out to something that’s very reasonable. But people are really – even hardliners – are agreeing, seems to be, 15 weeks seems to be a number that people are agreeing at,” Mr Trump said on WABC.

Mr Trump said he backed ­exceptions to a ban on abortion when it involved rape, incest or saving the life of the woman, which he said the vast majority of Republicans support.

THE TIMES