Donald Trump Hires Breitbart News Chairman as Campaign CEO

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, in the latest change to his political organization, has hired Stephen Bannon, the executive chairman of conservative website Breitbart News, as CEO of his campaign, according to news reports late Tuesday.

Bannon, the filmmaker responsible for the pro-Sarah Palin movie The Undefeated, is a former naval officer and former mergers and acquisitions investment banker at Goldman Sachs who holds masters degrees from Georgetown University and Harvard Business School.

The New York Times also reported that Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser and pollster for Trump and running mate Mike Pence, has been promoted to the role of the candidate’s campaign manager.

Paul Manafort will remain chairman of the Trump campaign, but the newspaper said the hires represent a demotion for him after Trump’s support has slipped in opinion polls in recent weeks. “It’s an expansion at a busy time in the final stretch of the campaign,” Conway told the Times.

It said the change comes as Trump sees his campaign in crisis. Observers called the hires a sign that Trump would continue an aggressive campaign style for the rest of the presidential race.

Bannon has been in place as Breitbart’s chair since the company in early 2012 unveiled a team to run the site after the unexpected death of founder Andrew Breitbart at the age of 43. Bannon had been a Breitbart board member since the site’s founding.

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