Trump campaign senior advisor Jason Miller has blasted the leakers, hold-overs, RINOs, and “backstabbers” who found themselves in the 2016 Trump White House in comments made to Vanity Fair.
“President Trump knows who can deliver and who can’t. The backstabbers who were around in 2016 won’t be in this next White House,” Miller said, reflecting on prior hiring errors commonly accepted to have been a result of a Republican National Committee (RNC) filled with ‘NeverTrumpers’ who helped staff up the operation at the time.
The Vanity Fair article also explains:
“…no one represented Trump’s drama-free campaign more than Chris LaCivita. In October 2022, the 56-year-old Marine veteran, who has a shaved head and linebacker build, joined the campaign as senior adviser. LaCivita is a practitioner of the political dark arts. During the 2004 presidential election, he advised the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group that smeared John Kerry’s Vietnam War record. It was a supreme act of chutzpah: Kerry’s opponent, George W. Bush, never served in Vietnam. LaCivita is more than a street brawler. He has a Talmudic understanding of primary rules. Last summer, LaCivita lobbied state Republican parties to change their processes to favor Trump. (For example, he convinced the California GOP to apportion all delegates to the winner.) “While everyone was dicking around last year, the Trump people were changing all these party rules, getting their people in place, changing the battlefield,” a top GOP strategist said.”
Author Gabe Sherman also notes the influence of HR impresario Johnny McEntee, Kash Patel, Ric Grenell, and Tom Homan, as well as reflecting on the massive role currently being played by Trump bodyman Walt Nauta:
“The campaign empowered body man Walt Nauta to act as a gatekeeper. Trump had grown especially close with Nauta, a 41-year-old former Navy cook who served as Trump’s White House valet. Nauta has been indicted along with Trump in the Florida federal case and has pleaded not guilty. “If the president’s tie ever gets even a drop of water, Walt exchanges it for a new one. I don’t think King Charles has anyone this good,” the campaign adviser said. Nauta was part of a new cadre of loyal aides staffing the 2024 campaign. It is a professionalized operation focused on one thing: winning.”