Leaked Trump Memo Reveals Secretive Campaign’s Inner Workings
An internal Trump campaign memo was leaked today, and the contents give a peek inside the New York billionaire’s strategy and path to the Republican nomination. The leaked memo contains talking points for all Trump campaign surrogates, which angles to emphasize, which stories to push, and which words to use: the Trump campaign wants surrogates to push the narrative that the Republican race is “rigged,” and that the campaign’s internal staffing issues are not a concern for voters.
The leaked Trump memo was obtained by the Washington Post, and its contents aren’t earth-shattering, but there are a few key points that illustrate the path forward for the Trump campaign, and how the internal strategy at work within the Trump campaign might play out on the campaign trail.
“Building out our campaign staff to make sure we leave no stone unturned and that we can win this thing on the up and up – not through a rigged set of rules,” reads the leaked Trump memo, according to the Washington Post.
The Trump memo references the recent staff shakeups within the Trump campaign, which surrogates are instructed to downplay as just a standard restructuring as the campaign moves toward a general election fight against Hillary Clinton — or Bernie Sanders. Still, critics are claiming the expanding power of new Trump staffer Paul Manafort is pushing a lot of long-time Trump supporters out of the campaign and causing friction among the Trump staff.
“The Cruz spin machine produces more lies than anything else. Our projections call for us to accumulate over 1,400 delegates and thus a first ballot nomination win in Cleveland,” reads the internal Trump campaign document distributed to surrogates this week.
Donald Trump’s big win in New York last night may have solidified his path to the nomination, but it’s also marked a change for the candidate himself, reports Politico. Media observers applauded Trump for referring to Ted Cruz by name, rather than by the epithet Trump had popularized in recent months, “Lyin’ Ted.” Confident after the New York win, the Trump campaign is reminding surrogates and supporters that their internal estimates remain strong — 1400 delegates on the first ballot at a contested convention in Cleveland would secure Trump the nomination, but some critics are scrutinizing that figure.
Trump campaign memo obtained by @PhilipRucker urges surrogates to keep hitting donor classhttps://t.co/TdPYrpa8mi pic.twitter.com/VU6kG9yRpm
— Matea Gold (@mateagold) April 20, 2016
“The RNC has a lot to answer for, as do those who are part of the donor class and the party establishment. This movement scares the hell out of them, and the people scare them so they will do whatever they can to keep power,” reads the leaked Trump memo.
The memo itself, reports the Washington Post, is a strong indication that the Donald Trump campaign has changed significantly in recent weeks — the campaign is running more like a traditional political campaign, indicating that the new staffers Trump has brought on board are having a real impact on the way Donald Trump is doing business on the campaign trail.
The leaked memo outlines talking points for media surrogates and presents a strong narrative, but critics caution that the memo is more of a pep talk than an internal strategy document, the memo primarily reflects which narrative the Trump campaign wants to push.
EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT THE TRUMP MEMO: pic.twitter.com/o5mIdiYoHs
— Chris “Subscribe to Law Dork!” Geidner (@chrisgeidner) April 20, 2016
“[The] Hillary email scandal is going to loom large over the next several months. If anyone else had done what she had done, they would already be in prison,” reads the campaign document from the Trump campaign.
As Donald Trump pivots toward a general election, this memo provides valuable insight into what kind of campaign voters can expect from the New York billionaire, as he gears up for a general election fight against Clinton or Sanders. Included among the talking points for Trump surrogates is a list of points the opposition might bring up — including Trump’s poor popularity among independent and Democratic voters.
[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
