"The campaign's imploding; it's disintegrating," one Trump campaign staffer says. "Every time we do something positive, we cough up the ball."
But the candidate is similarly frustrated with senior levels of his operation, which some believe is causing him to rely heavily on his own gut instincts, raising the prospects of a high-wire controversy.
Trump was alarmed by a call he received last week from a senior adviser who is not campaign chairman Paul Manafort or Manafort assistant Rick Gates, according to an account provided to U.S. News. The caller lamented the campaign's lack of state-by-state organization and warned the nominee, "You're not going to win."
The candidate, not surprisingly, hit the roof. But the person who followed up with the adviser on the disturbing message wasn't Manafort or Gates, according to the source. It was Jared Kushner, the influential son-in-law who is married to Ivanka Trump and who is held in high regard by her father.
"Are the kids running the campaign? Anecdotally, from everything I've heard and seen, yes at least in tandem with Paul and Rick," the staffer says.
