The problem with Paul Manafort, it turns out, was not that he was a shill for allies of the Kremlin. It’s that he tried to turn Trump into a respectable-ish general election politician. Now that Manafort has received a de facto demotion, to be replaced by Steve Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News, we can expect to see Trump drop any pretense of cleaning up his act. Instead, he’s reportedly going to amplify the combative persona and ethno-nationalist message that won him the GOP primary:
Bannon has convinced Trump that rest of campaign needs to be bare-knuckles brawl, w/ full-bore populism/movement politics
— Robert Costa (@costareports) August 17, 2016
Costa adds that this “gloves off” strategy entails “brutal fights with Clinton” and “heavy emphasis on nationalism and populism.” Breitbart is, after all, the online world’s biggest cheerleader for Trump and the home of the political alt-right. Bannon, whom Bloomberg once dubbed “the most dangerous political operative in America,” once chided Fox News for being too liberal. As we barrel toward election day, it looks like the campaign has decided to let Trump be Trump.