U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has fired his national political director after six weeks on the job, in what appears to be a tug of war within the real estate mogul’s campaign, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
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Trump told staffers and supporters gathered backstage before a campaign rally in California on Wednesday that political director Rick Wiley "should be fired" for his handling of a fundraising deal with the Republican National Committee, according to the campaign sources.
Three sources confirmed Trump said Wiley should be fired after Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald told Trump that Wiley was responsible for leaving Nevada out of a fundraising deal.
The move is the latest in a tug of war between Trump’s original campaign team, including press secretary Hope Hicks and campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and a group of professionals he brought in later to shore up support from more traditional corners of the Republican Party.
The new arrivals, led by veteran strategist Paul Manafort, whom Trump hired in late March, have urged Trump to tone down some of his most provocative positions, such as his proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States.
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But Trump reprimanded Manafort, according to two sources familiar with the conversation, after Manafort told a gathering of RNC members at an April meeting in Florida that Trump was only "acting" when describing his proposed Muslim ban or his plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
A statement issued by the Trump campaign said Wiley had been hired on a "short-term basis as a consultant until the campaign was running full steam.