Paul Manafort

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(CNN)Donald Trump's convention manager, Republican strategist Paul Manafort, described his new role in the campaign Friday, saying it shows the billionaire's signature leadership style.

"This is an example of Donald Trump managing, and the type of leadership he will bring to the presidency in November," Manafort said in an exclusive interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo. "He also understood that winning isn't enough, that it's about how you win and how much you win."

Donald Trump

to be Republican nominee
52%
live odds

Manafort told CNN, "I work directly for the boss," a notable departure from the usual workflow at Trump's 2016 operation, where most campaign staff answer to campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

Manafort joins the Trump campaign as a contested Republican convention becomes more likely. Trump suffered a critical loss to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz Tuesday in the Wisconsin primary. However, the strategist says he is confident the Cruz campaign will hit a rough patch, allowing Trump to win the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright.

"Utah and New York are two different states," he said. "By the time we get to California, the momentum is going to be clear, and Ted Cruz's path to victory will be in shambles."

Donald Trump has 746 delegates to date of the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright, meaning Trump would have to win the remaining 61% of delegates up for grabs.

Manafort is also optimistic Trump will block Cruz's chance of winning on the first ballot if the convention is contested.
"You got to understand what the game is. If the game is a second, third or fourth ballot then what he's doing is clever, but on the first ballot it is meaningless."

Manafort's experience in campaigns goes back to the 1976 contested Republican convention. Trump's hiring of Manafort fueled speculation he was replacing campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. However, Manafort insists there was no internal shakeup.
"I listen to everybody," he said. "I view my job as making sure people get to understand and meet Donald Trump."

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Paul Manafort charged the Ted Cruz campaign with using "Gestapo tactics" to pick up delegates. Chuck Todd confronts Manafort with threats from Roger Stone and asks what is "fair game" to win a delegate.

"You go to these county conventions, and you see the tactics, Gestapo tactics, the scorched-earth tactics," Manafort said on Sunday's broadcast of NBC's Meet the Press.

Manafort also elaborated on his increasing role in the Trump campaign.

"There's a transition. It's a natural transition. Trump was doing very well on a model that made sense. But now that the campaign has gotten to the end stages, a more traditional campaign has to take place," Manafort said.

Transcript, via NBC News:



CHUCK TODD: What is fair game to win a delegate? Is threatening a fair game? Is threats a fair game?

PAUL MANAFORT: It's not my style, and it's not Donald Trump's style.

CHUCK TODD: What is --

PAUL MANAFORT: But it is Ted Cruz's style. And that's going to wear thin very fast.

CHUCK TODD: Do you think he's threatening delegates?

PAUL MANAFORT: Well, he's threatening, you go to these county conventions, and you see the tactics, Gestapo tactics, the scorched-earth tactics--

CHUCK TODD: Gestapo tactics? That's a strong word.

PAUL MANAFORT: Well, you look at, we're going to be filing several protests because reality is, you know, they are not playing by the rules. But frankly, that's the side game. Because the only game I'm focusing on right now is getting delegates. And the games that have happened, even this past weekend, you know, are not important to the long-term game of how do we get to 1,237.

CHUCK TODD: But is he, I guess what is fair game and getting a delegate? Is paying for their convention costs, is it-- golf club memberships? What's fair and unfair in this? What's ethical, what's unethical?

PAUL MANAFORT: Well, there's the law, and then there's ethics, and then there's getting votes. I'm not going to get into what tactics are used. I happen to think the best way we're going to get delegates is to have Donald Trump be exposed to delegates, let the delegates hear what he says. He's done very well so far in putting himself in position by virtue of communicating.

You know, the key I think for delegates coming up, especially the unbound delegates, is the electability question. And right now, we're in a fight, and this fight is, you know, causes for negative for all the candidates. But there's no question in my mind, there's not one state you can look at that Romney won or lost in 2012 that Cruz can win. Not one. But Trump changes the whole map. As we get into those arguments, which is the endgame of the endgame, that persuasion starts to have an impact.

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Paul Manafort has a history of working for strong men.

Over a 40-year career as a lobbyist and political consultant, Manafort and his firms have advised, in no particular order, a business group tied to Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator of the Philippines; Viktor Yanukovych, the ousted Ukrainian president and ally of Vladimir Putin; and Lynden Pindling, the former Bahamian prime minister who was accused of ties to drug traffickers (http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/27/world/sir-lynden-pindling-70-prime-minister-who-led-bahamas-to-independence.html).
Now, he works for Donald Trump.

On Thursday, Trump announced that Manafort would play an increasingly influential role in his campaign as it heads toward a possibly contested Republican convention in Cleveland. In a statement, the business mogul announced that “he is consolidating the functions related to the nomination process” and “assigning” them to Manafort.

“Mr. Manafort will oversee, manage, and be responsible for all activities that pertain to Mr. Trump’s delegate process and the Cleveland Convention,” the statement said. “Mr. Manafort will direct the campaign’s activities in areas including delegate operations, Washington, DC outreach and the DC office opening next week.”

Friends, lobbyists and former foes say that Trump is picking the right man for the job at a time when he is seeking to professionalize his political operation as it fends off talk that he will be unable to secure the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the GOP presidential nod outright. If that doesn’t happen, then Trump will be relying on the longtime party operative to corral delegates in a race that could go to a second ballot and beyond.

Manafort comes with the right calling card: He fiercely protected Gerald Ford’s delegates at the last contested convention in 1976, in what Bay Buchanan, national treasurer for Ronald Reagan’s insurgent campaign, called “hand to hand” combat.

“You’re down to the number of people you can count and meet,” Buchanan said, noting that Manafort didn’t lose a single Ford delegate. “If you’re not tough, you will lose. To suggest he’s tough is saying he’s competent.”

Since then, Manafort has been involved in many a convention operation. But that doesn’t mean Manafort is a conventional Washington figure — indeed, he remains somewhat of a mystery on K Street.

[As contested convention looms, Trump to hire ‘seasoned operatives’ to help (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-contested-convention-looms-trump-to-hire-seasoned-operatives-to-help/2016/04/06/03de12f8-fc20-11e5-9140-e61d062438bb_story.html)]
Friends say Manafort hasn’t lived full time in the Washington area for years. He resides, at least part of the time, in Trump Tower in Manhattan, where he has an apartment. He and Trump have met over the years in the lobby and elevators.

Manafort splits time in Florida, New York and Alexandria, Va., and travels internationally often, and for weeks or months at a time, consulting for foreign governments, several friends said. Corporate lobbyists describe such work as “a different cup of tea” than the typical contract lobbying for corporations that keeps most K Street types in Washington full-time.

[Get campaign and congressional news from The Daily 202 delivered directly to your email inbox every morning] (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/category/the-daily-202/)
But despite his low inside-the-Beltway profile, no one underestimates Manafort, seen as a formidable opponent who is unafraid to go to the mat for controversial, polarizing clients. The Trump job marks his reemergence onto the U.S. political scene, one longtime friend said.

“He’s going to be a major influence on Trump,” said Scott Reed, senior political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a longtime Manafort friend. “They’re close in age, so Trump doesn’t look to him like he’s some kid. He brings a level of professionalism to the Trump operation at an important time because they have to pivot from being this band of merry campaigners that fly around to actually grinding out a convention where every delegate matters.”

Reed was campaign manager for Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign and hired Manafort to run the San Diego convention. The two previously worked together on the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1984, when Manafort was heavily involved in the convention planning.

“Paul is very much into the basics of this business,” Reed said. “Blocking and tackling. Message discipline. Those are the things that really matter. We’ll see if he can get it done. The jury is still out.”

If anyone is capable of whipping the Trump campaign into a more organized, disciplined operation, it’s Manafort. He was recommended for the job by Roger Stone, the longtime Trump associate who officially parted ways with the campaign last summer but remains influential.

Manafort is the co-founder of two lobby and consulting firms, Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly (BMS&K) and, later, Davis Manafort. Even in the lobbying industry, where the buying and selling of influence can blur ethical lines, both businesses garnered considerable scrutiny for their tactics and clients.

BMS&K, founded in 1980, was investigated by a congressional panel in 1989 for its role in obtaining millions of dollars in federal grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to rehabilitate a low-income housing complex in New Jersey.

In exchange, Manafort and his partners received consulting fees from developers. During the investigation, Manafort acknowledged that the work he performed in return for consulting fees could be termed “influence peddling,” The Post reported in 1991 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/01/03/pr-firm-acquires-black-manafort/d31e37db-d7eb-4cf3-8ef6-749b9b73ecb7/). The firm was sold to public relations giant Burson-Marsteller in 1991 for an undisclosed price.

BMS&Kalso appears to be the early link that connected Manafort and Trump decades ago. The firm lobbied on behalf of the Trump Organization on gaming, taxes and other issues related to Trump’s hotels, at both the federal and state levels in New York and Florida, said lobbyist and GOP strategist Charlie Black, Manafort’s former business partner.

Manafort “has taken on a tough task, but certainly it’s a good decision for Trump,” said Black, who has been friends with Manafort for 40 years. Black is an adviser to John Kasich’s presidential campaign.

The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for an interview with Manafort. But on Thursday, in the Trump release expanding his role, Manafort described winning the GOP nod “as an intricate series of steps that requires a comprehensive strategy.”

“As part of the campaign team, my job is to secure and protect Mr. Trump’s nomination and that is what we will do,” he vowed, adding he intended to work closely with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and deputy campaign chief Michael Glassner. “I am honored that he has allowed me to join him in this effort. Mr. Trump has created a historic campaign that has moved the American people. He is on the verge of an incredible victory.”
For much of his career, Manafort seemed to be a part of the establishment that Trump routinely rails against.

He made a name for himself working for leading Republican figures, including Ford, Reagan, Dole and George H.W. Bush.

“Paul has been involved in internal Republican politics for almost all of his adult life,” said Vin Weber, a lobbyist and a Republican former congressman from Minnesota who is a longtime friend of Manafort. “He’s one of the true first-rate professionals in the Republican Party. There’s only a handful of people, I really mean that, that can honestly say they know how a national convention works. He’s one of them.”

Weber, who advises Kasich, is no fan of Trump but lauded his choice of Manafort all the same.

“This is one of the most impressive things I’ve seen the Trump organization do,” Weber said. “Maybe the only impressive thing.”
After BMS&K was sold to Burson-Marsteller, Manafort formed Davis Manafortin 1995 with former John McCain adviser Rick Davis. It effectively disbanded after the 2008 election, Politico reported in 2014. Davis did not immediately return a request seeking comment.

Manafort then founded DMP International, a business and international-affairs firm. The firm was formed in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., in 2012, according to the state’s business records.

Along the way, he seems to have picked up a masterful command of the unique traits critical to securing delegates, a dance that combines math, management skills, discipline and a knack for knowing when and how to apply pressure. He has a keen ability to “size people up pretty well” to gauge whether they can be trusted, Black said.

“A delegate operation is a big undertaking,” Black said. “You need several hundred people contacting the delegates to back up the efforts the candidate and others are making. You have to be very organized and make sure people are following through and accountable.”

Buchanan recalls the aggressive convention strategy deployed by the Reagan campaign to try to win over Ford-aligned delegates. Not a single one budged. “The spirit in the room was so pro-Reagan, it was astounding, yet we didn’t get one [delegate] to come over,” Buchanan said. “That says a great deal about Paul Manafort’s ability to know these delegates, become familiar with them and make certain they remained in the camp he needed them to be in. Paul Manafort made certain no delegate moved no matter what we did.”

In Cleveland, Manafort will find himself on the opposite side of some of his former business partners — and not for the first time, in what seems to be a small circle of delegate wranglers. In 1976, Manafort workedfor Ford and Black worked for Reagan. In 1988, Manafort backed Dole and Black worked for Jack Kemp.

Black said he has not spoken to Manafort since he was tapped for the Kasich campaign and Manafort signed on with Trump. But to Black, it’s business as usual.

“We’ll be friends regardless,” Black said. “We don’t always have to be on the same side to be friends.”

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Well this didn't get much traction.

Trump pulling in real help a little late but not too late. I think one of his main advisors left about a month ago and that is about the same time Trumps shit started to go backwards. I know it wasn't money issues but advisor and issues like that. Perhaps his advisors were infiltrated? This is a no holes nut bar campaign and I have learned more from this campaigning than I did in my entire life.

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http://bit.ly/23D2ap3

[Barbaro]

So Manafort is a recent addition to Trump's campaign?

Trump should have had professionals with experience AND handlers from the get-go.


He's already done damage to his brand with his "door-in-the-face" technique and the way he chooses words.