WASHINGTON ¨C Donald Trump¡¯s surprise move to hand the reins of his campaign to a right-wing firebrand was seen Wednesday as a formalized revival of his bare-knuckled, anti-establishment strategy and a rebuke to prominent Republican strategists who doubt its power to win the White House.
The hiring of Stephen K. Bannon, who runs a conservative site that often attacks top Republicans, also crushed longstanding hopes within the party that their nominee would tone down his rhetoric, a shift that now-sidelined campaign chairman Paul Manafort had promised for months.
If Corey Lewandowski, the first person to run Trump¡¯s campaign, symbolized the campaign¡¯s ragtag early days, and Manafort, the second, represented its professionalization, the Bannon hire suggests a return to the original ¡°let Trump be Trump¡± ethos, along with a reaffirmation of the nationalist and nativist undertones that powered his success in the GOP primary.
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