By hiring veteran strategist Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's campaign is signaling a more-aggressive push to security the convention delegates he'll need to secure the GOP presidential nomination, but even Manafort is facing a tough battle as the possibility of a contested convention grows, political experts agree.
"Paul has got to put all this together at once," former Minnesota congressman Vin Weber, who describes Manafort as a friend and a "first rate" coup for Trump, told
USA Today.
However, he said that it will be up to Manafort to transform Trump's campaign into one that can fight at the Cleveland convention for delegates, should the New York businessman not gather enough to secure the nomination outright.
Manafort, though, is described as an aggressive, seasoned expert who fought to hold President Gerald Ford's delegates against challenger Ronald Reagan back in 1976, and has already made the news after accusing Ted Cruz and his campaign of using "
Gestapo tactics" to secure delegates, a claim that made Weber laugh.
"If anybody were to ruthlessly exploit the rules — and it was to their advantage — it would be Paul," said Weber, who backs Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the race. Like Trump, Kasich has accused Cruz's campaign of improperly attracting delegates.
Cruz's spokeswoman Alice Stewart denied the complaints, saying his team has a "superior organization" that works "within the process and rules that have been established."
And even though Manafort fought for Ford first, four years later he worked for Reagan's campaign and after that became a founding partner for the Black, Manafort, Stone, and Kelly consulting and lobbying firm, which ended up being involved in battles during the presidencies of Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
In another connection, one of Manafort's partners was Trump friend and ally Roger Stone.
"They played hardball, but this is a hardball town," Republican strategist Rich Galen told USA Today. "If you needed gunslingers, they knew how to shoot."
But another partner, Charles Black, who now backs Kasich, denied doing "anything under the belt" for their clients.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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