Donald Trump retooled his campaign Wednesday with new hires and plans to finally launch a TV ad blitz, but the rambunctious real estate mogul signaled that he isn’t changing the hard-charging style that got him this far in the presidential race.
The Republican nominee also isn’t backing down from his increasingly improbable push to expand the electoral map across the Rust Belt, with a rally set for Friday in reliably blue Michigan, even as his campaign struggles in several must-win swing states.
Mr. Trump’s surprise pick of Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon to be the new chief executive of the campaign confirmed for many that Mr. Trump isn’t significantly altering course and would continue to challenge political correctness and campaign norms — traits that thrill his fans but frustrate GOP campaign veterans.
Mr. Bannon also is famous for pushing the envelope at Breitbart News. He took a leave of absence from the conservative news outlet to work on the Trump campaign.
Mr. Trump made the moves amid sagging poll numbers in battleground states with 82 days remaining before the Nov. 8 election. The Trump campaign insisted it was a staff expansion and not a shakeup of the team.
John Truscott, a GOP strategist in Michigan, wondered why Mr. Trump was making the detour to the Great Lakes state, which hasn’t backed a Republican presidential candidate since 1988 and where Mr. Trump trails by 10 points in two recent polls.
“I’m kind of surprised at the focus on Michigan,” Mr. Truscott said. “Maybe they see something in the numbers that I’m not aware of [because] Michigan is a tough state in presidential years.”
Meanwhile, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is leading Mr. Trump by about 5 percentage points in Florida, 3 points in Ohio, 2 points in North Carolina and 9 points in Pennsylvania, according to the latest Real Clear Politics averages.
A growing chorus of Republican elected officials and party leaders have urged Mr. Trump to show more message discipline, stick to scripted speeches and run TV ads. At the very least, the campaign finally made an entry into the TV ad wars.
Republican strategists said staffing up couldn’t hurt the campaign but wondered if it would make much difference.
“It’s always good to bring more additional campaign staff on board, especially for the final push this fall. What really matters is if the strategy and direction change to bring results through rising poll numbers,” said GOP consultant Ron Bonjean.
Mr. Trump also promoted pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager.
Paul Manafort, who has been under fire in the press for allegedly working for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, will continue to be the chairman and chief strategist for the campaign.
The most significant change was the campaign’s first TV ad buy, with spots slated to start airing Friday in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Mrs. Clinton has spent more than $60 million pummeling Mr. Trump with TV ads in battleground states. The Trump campaign so far has spent nothing — a sum the reality TV star bragged about.
“I haven’t spent 10 cents,” Mr. Trump said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.” “We’ve got a lot of money in the bank, and I haven’t spent any of it.
“She spent way over a hundred million dollars in negative ads on me and I’m fairly close, so I think we’re going to do very well, and we’re going to actually start doing ads over the next few days,” he said. “I think we have some pretty good ads.”
Mr. Trump referred to the combined spending of the Clinton campaign and pro-Clinton super PACs.
The Trump campaign makeover came the day after Mr. Trump delivered his most forceful appeal yet to black voters, with stinging criticism of Mrs. Clinton for pandering to minorities but offering failed liberal policies that have blighted inner-city neighborhoods.
However, the impact of the speech was diluted by news coverage of the campaign reorganization.
Mrs. Clinton said at a rally that the problem was Mr. Trump, not the people who run his campaign.
“He can hire or fire anybody he wants from his campaign. They can make him read new words from a teleprompter, but he is still the same man who insults Gold Star families, demeans women, mocks people with disabilities and thinks he knows more about ISIS than our generals,” she told the crowd in Cleveland, Ohio, using an acronym for the Islamic State.
“There is no new Donald Trump. This is it,” she said. “And, you know, I hope you will talk to any of your friends who are flirting with the idea of voting for Donald Trump. Friends don’t let friends vote for Trump.”
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook was more blunt, saying that Mr. Trump had fully embraced racism.
“Donald Trump has decided to double down on his most small, nasty and divisive instinct by turning his campaign over to someone who is best known for running a so-called news cite that peddles divisive, at times racist, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories,” Mr. Mook said in a conference call with reporters to opine on the Trump campaign shake-up.
“He has officially won the fight to let Trump be Trump,” said Mr. Mook. “He keeps telling us who he is. It’s time we believe him.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to Mr. Mook.
Corey Lewandowski, who was fired as Trump campaign manager in June, said that hiring Mr. Bannon shows that Mr. Trump was running to win.
“If you look at Stephen Bannon and what they’ve built at Breitbart, it’s win at all costs,” Mr. Lewandowski said on CNN. “And I think that really makes some people on the left very afraid, because they’re willing to say and do things that others in the mainstream media wouldn’t do.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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