ABC News(NEW YORK, N.Y.) — Donald Trump will change the role for one of his campaign’s top advisors, ABC News has learned.
Sources within the campaign said that Trump will name Paul Manafort to the new role of Campaign Chairman and Chief Strategist.
Manafort, who was brought on board early last month as a convention manager, was originally tasked with trying to secure Trump the necessary delegates to avoid a fight at the Republican convention.
With Trump now the likely presumptive nominee for the GOP, Manafort’s new role is a natural growth of the campaign as they begin to build a team ready for the general election, according to the sources. The role is an obvious promotion for Manafort, but sources stressed it should not be seen as a demotion for campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
Campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks confirmed the move, adding that Lewandowski will, “continue overseeing day to day operations and will work with Manafort on political strategy and communications, among other things, through the general election.”
Manafort is arguably more from the establishment than most of Trump’s relatively young staff, who helped the Republican front-runner in early primary victories.
His particular experience is relevant to Trump’s position. Manafort played a significant role in the 1976 convention where Gerald Ford ended up winning the nomination in spite of a fight from Ronald Reagan and Bob Dole.
In later years, Manafort went on to work for Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Manafort was on Capitol Hill earlier on Thursday, meeting with Republican leadership.
“There’s a growing number of people supporting us. We feel very comfortable that even more will be supporting us next trip,” Manafort told ABC News. “They all recognize now that we definitely can win, and they want to know what kind of issues we will be stressing, which we’ll be doing in the next month or two.”
Trump will be returning to the campaign trail with a rally Thursday in New Jersey that will also serve as a fundraiser for Gov. Chris Christie.
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