Trump Campaign Can't Quite Stay On Track

I have already mentioned how difficult Paul Manafort's job is managing the Trump campaign and a candidate that constantly wants to go off script. And for every couple of steps forward, there always seems to be about two steps back as well. After being incredibly restrained (for Trump) about the shootings in Minnesota, Louisiana, and Texas, and gearing up for a Vice Presidential announcement on Friday, it certainly looked like Trump was at least trying to present a more reasonable face to the campaign.

But for those two steps forward, there were some setbacks. First, his ill-fated solicitations of MPs of countries around the world not only triggered an Federal Elections Commission complaint but also apparently resulted in nearly 80% of the emails being caught in spam filters and a suspension of his account from one bulk email platform due to security and legal concerns. Certainly not the end of the world but not exactly great PR for a supposedly fantastic businessman. More problematic may be the $10 million lawsuit that Trump has filed against a former staffer, who was fired from the campaign for racist posts he wrote in 2007, for violating his non-disclosure agreement in supposedly leaking to the NY Post a story of an affair between two top Trump staffers. In response, the staffer is alleging that the Trump campaign illegally co-mingled corporate and campaign funds. Again, allegations by a fired former staffer are not necessarily the end of the world but it is once again a needless distraction for the campaign. And as it is now a legal matter initiated by the Trump campaign, it is going to make it much more difficult for the story to go away without it looking like Trump has something to hide. And it just adds to the narrative of Trump using the courts to intimidate people who oppose him or to whom he owes money.

As I said, neither of these issues seems to be a serious threat to Trump's campaign. But it does seem that Trump can't go an entire week just staying on message without some other distraction interfering. And, no matter how much Manafort tries, I think it will be like this for the rest of the campaign.