title:  Trump Just Appointed The Worst A**hole Yet To Run His Whole Campaign
text: Since Donald Trump can t figure out why he s trailing Hillary so badly everywhere it counts, he s decided his campaign staff is the problem. As such, he s shaking things up, reducing the role of his current campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and appointing someone new to run things. The new campaign chief?Stephen Bannon, of Breitbart.Yes, that Breitbart. The same Breitbart that peddles conspiracy theories to white supremacists. The one that set out to prove the polls are all rigged only to prove that they re all correct instead. And the one the Southern Poverty Law Center says is now the news arm of the alt-right (read: extreme right movement.Trump s thinking goes something like this: He can only win with people who share his delusional frame of mind, so that s who he ll surround himself with now. He s also got a GOP pollster, Kellyanne Conway, as campaign manager, and he believes they ll be able to turn his campaign around for him: I have known Steve and Kellyanne both for many years. They are extremely capable, highly qualified people who love to win and know how to win. I believe we re adding some of the best talents in politics, with the experience and expertise needed to defeat Hillary Clinton in November and continue to share my message and vision to Make America Great Again. Hey, being outrageous and horrible made him win the primaries, so it should work in the general. That s the world that Trump inhabits, and in that world, campaign staff that try to get him to temper himself, act more presidential, and less like a bully toddler, are the whole reason his poll numbers have crashed.In fact, Trump has felt  boxed in  and  controlled  by Paul Manafort and other staffers who  barely know him.  He wants to focus hard on riling up his supporters through  rousing  rallies and media appearances (again, because that worked in the primaries and the primaries are totally like the general). Manafort wanted less of that, and more real campaigning.Breitbart has been one of Trump s champions for a while now, and one former employee says that Bannon used Breitbart for his own personal gain, possibly including a way to get close to Trump s campaign. Under Bannon, Breitbart has become a fantastic website for white supremacists and nativists   the very people to whom Trump himself caters. Employees of Breitbart were afraid of Bannon, and with good reason: He is a vindictive, nasty figure, infamous for verbally abusing supposed friends and threatening enemies. [He] is a smarter version of Trump: he s an aggressive self-promoter who name-drops to heighten his profile and woo bigger names, and then uses those bigger names as stepping stools to his next destination. He is everything Trump is, only worse.Some GOP operatives are already saying that the choice of Bannon will effect a pivot, but it won t be the one that the party is hoping for. If Trump s campaign was dark, hateful, bigoted, nativist and dangerous before, it will be all that times a thousand under Bannon.Which is exactly what Trump wants. Forget the fact that, if that strategy was going to work against Hillary, it would have started working by now. Trump wants someone who is going to help him draw huge crowds and vanquish his enemies, not run a successful campaign.Featured image by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images