♪ mark: donald trump has shaken up and expanded his senior staff with three months until election day. overnight, the republican nominee added two names, one is familiar to wadr viewers and pretty much every tv news watcher across the fruited plain. that is kellyanne conway, promoted to the position of campaign manager. here is what kellyanne conway had to say about the news on fox

news this morning. >> it is a busy home stretch and we need to beef up the senior level roles in a way that we are dividing and conquering. i think what he does not like is his people telling him what to do, what to say. -- that isthere is hillary clinton has a game with . with donald trump, he is still his own best messenger. people still see him as authentic. mark: that is the campaign theger joined by the top of donald trump campaign by stephen bannon. he has worked as a goldman sachs banker, a hollywood investor, and a navy officer, and until recently, the head of the conservative news website

breitbart. he is leaving breitbart to become the trump campaign ceo. willhile, paul manafort stay on in his current position. the campaign manager who paul manafort ousted was corey lewandowski. so, what does cnn enlist corey lewandowski think of the latest developments? >> is a candidate that wants to win. this is a clear indication of that. if you look at what they have at breitbart, it is win at all cost. it is important that kelly and is with them as much as possible. she has done this for a long time. she had a very successful polling company. she also brings a sense of calmness. i think she has been lacking. leadership on the plane. mark: so they join the top of the trump campaign. why is he making these changes and what does it mean? >> he is making them because he

is losing. he's continuing the same behavior and expecting a different outcome. he has found his ultimate brand matchup. he wants to go back to where he started, which is the outsider, which is the flamethrower. nudge had to post primary and play a little bit with republican party and you can see he is not comfortable and it is not working and he is doubly down. outsider, revolutionary, throw flames, us versus the establishment, that is trump's message. they are coming together. he is doubling down on trump being trump. mark: i do not know what nikkei will be --bannon will be doing in this campaign. he is for a message of change, revolutionary change, and kellyanne conway, though she supports the change message, but she has worked for the rnc, she knows leading members of

congress. i do not know how much this marginalizes paul manafort. he is still the chairman. and when i spoke with says he has a huge role in the campaign. the press wants to turn this into a shakeup, they are willfully understaffed. -- hopefully -- woefully understaffed. they have two senior people who have to deal with the decisions. if kellyanne conway gets on the plane with trump, goes to events, and keeps him focused, i don't care what the downside is, that improves his chances of winning. >> i think it is good for both of them. both of them have the same tone as trump. we were showing a clip of trump giving a speech yesterday, and i said look uncomfortable he looks. we had kellyanne on the other day. she walked up and she knows how to pivot in a second. she is tough, aggressive, and i disagree with everything he stands for, but he is an animal.

mark: and he make stuff happen. i think what donald trump wanted was people around him who could say stuff to him. he trusts their judgment. he has known kellyanne longer than bannon. bring someone that knows the number of the fingertip level whatever you say goes. he trusts kellyanne conway. of has not been in a lot winning presidential campaigns, and i'm not sure she has been on any integral but she has worked for aitical campaigns long time. she understands the product, she understands trump. >> what scares me is that the possible future commander and chief, he needs a certain person next to him on the plane. he is our president. i want to know if that person calls in sick that they come the wheel will not go off. that is a big concern. i do not believe barack obama or george bush needed somebody by their side. mark: bill clinton ran an anti-establishment campaign, and andicized democrats

republicans but democrats were loyal because they said, this guy can win and has the message of change we believe it. this team could help trump do that. say this is a brand-new day and that this is going to change the whole race, but this gives them two people he has confidence in who are in sync with message. >> hours before the world found out about donald trump's non-pivot pivot, he gave a speech that took sharp aim at washington elite and embraced his outsider credentials that helped him get this far. mr. trump: i am not part of the corrupt system. in fact, the corrupt system is trying to stop me. the leadership clash in washington dc of which hillary clinton has been a member for 30 years has abandoned the people of this country. when we talk about the insider, who are we talking about? it is the comfortable politicians looking out for their own interests. it is the lobbyists who know how to insert that perfect loophole

into every single bill and get richer and richer and richer at your expense. the insiders also include the media executives, anchors, and journalists in washington, los angeles, and new york city who are part of the same failed status quo and want nothing to change. they don't want it to change. the media donor political complex that has bled this country dry has to be replaced with a new government of, by, and for the people. >> let's assume kellyanne is on the plane every day and can keep him on message. ?ffective message mark: it is unfortunate that the personnel changes are getting attention on the same day as the speech. i want to say it again but i do

not want people to over interpret my words and somehow think i think donald trump is the front runner but that is the message that democrats have been worried he would get onto. it is about change and lumping all of the big establishment forces in the country and saying, if you are happy with things the way they are, vote for hillary clinton but if you do not only big media, big government, big business, vote for me. >> i want to talk about the repackaging the muslim ban and the wall to a more socially acceptable thing. simply, you find a large enough group of people who were not happy with their lives and instead of now blaming a muslim or an immigrant, you blame the group of politicians, media, head shuns -- hedge funds, city of new york city, city of washington, city of los angeles and beyonce.

that is the psychon today's front page of the new york times, a story about donald trump billionaire who as he was taking shareholder money and they were going downhill, he was taking money out, he got a $25 million tax deal with chris christie, a new yorker, a billionaire working with wall street, the politicians, he is at the epicenter. mark: when he drove this message at the nomination coming hot republicans make that case. you're right, the clinton people will turn on a dime about how they are going after trump if he starts to get traction saying, and the outsider, they will say, you had lobbyists in washington. you had special sweetheart deals. >> he was the poster boy. mark: you are the poster board for government, using your money to leverage to get benefits from government. again, that message compared to what he has been talking about -- >> i think it is too transparent. i think the people he has been having trouble with, the swing people, the suburban voters of

washington dc in philadelphia and women are not going to bite on that. that is really doubling down to the people that are already there. mark: at a minimum, he consolidates a republican base and he may be able to get some democrats with a message. >> we will see with breitbart if he consolidates republicans. mark: when we come back, we will learn more about the new executive at the donald trump campaign after these words from our sponsors. ♪

♪ mark: as we said at the center of the latest trump campaign shovel, breitbart is the former breitbart executive, bannon. one of the more interesting , heets from his past apparently has the royalties

when a little heard of show called "seinfeld." obviously, we jumped at the chance to combine seinfeld in this presidential campaign, two of the pillars of our lives to this day. our team did a deep dive into the archives to find clips the best help us answer the question, who is stephen bannon? >> if you want to get inside the mind of stephen bannon go take a tour through breitbart.com. it is very aggressive, heated, often very paranoid. it is not enough if you believe. >> breitbart a far right news source often peddling conspiracy series. >> i am saying it could not have come from behind. there had to have been a second splitter. [laughter] ceo and has run several successful companies in the past. >> what does he do? >> he does imports.

>> just imports, no exports? >> he is an importer, exporter, ok? >> he does not have any experience running a campaign. i did he get this job? you will find out what he brings to the party. >> here. here is your take. ♪ mark: all right. there is another side of bannon that a lot of people are talking about, the cofounder of the nonprofit of the government account of institute which is funded the clinton cash. that has gotten a lot of attention. he is anf breitbart unabashed populist and also a critic of republican leadership including mitch mcconnell and paul ryan who he accuses of selling out to the american people. under his right, breitbart has trolled the house speaker regularly during the run up to his primary by including a fence

around his home while ryan has refused to endorse trump's proposal that wall of the mexican border. he is no stranger to political combat. listen to how he was talking about the republican party in washington elite back in 2013. >> we do not really believe there is a functional conservative party in this country. we do not believe that the republican party is that. we tend to look at this imperial city of washington, this have two groups of parties that represent the insiders commercial party and that is a collection of insider deals, insider transactions and a budding aristocracy that has made this the wealthiest city in the country. mark: nbc news' katie tur will join us in a bit. he reassured them that he is not interested in turning this campaign into trump versus the

gop establishment. still, if this message, which is one donald trump has liked himself, is it one he takes off running against republicans and republican leaders. how was i going to play? twoe is going to have issues. i do believe you take on too much, you get squashed. now that he is taking on the media, wall street, beyonce, now the republican party, at some point, it just steam rolls over you. it is one thing if you're running a newsletter or website to be the flamethrower and kind turds on everything. if you are trying to get a majority vote in this country. if we go back to the two conventions as i said on the american side, who we are, per trade i republicans or democrats. atticus makes good television

but i do not think it will work. mark: the only chance trump has for a serious combat is to go against all these forces. this includes the party. >> i agree. he has to talk about the party problems but he has to do it with paul ryan and previous. there are areas where paul ryan would say the republican party in washington is messed up. there is area for a lot of voters. itald trump needs to build they coalition for change and that has to include some democrats, independents and some anger republicans. he is trying say to get a few of the bernie voters, 50% better not going to hillary. union guysbout some and gals? the only thing that message is saying, both parties in washington have messed up. you do not say hillary clinton said the democratic party is messed up. >> eyeing going back to the

reagan democrats and i just do not see this happening. mark: we will see. i think it is his best hope. >> it is. i plotted but i do not think it will work. mark: up next, more on trump campaign changes. ♪

♪ >> here to talk about the latest lineup for the trump campaign is president of american values gary bauer. big moves today in the campaign. tell us why. >> i think it is a home run. i know kellyanne conway and steve bannon very well.

schieffer more years than him. i think these are two individuals that are bright. they show that they operate very well in american politics and they both share the vision that donald trump has about mainstream america being left behind and building a new coalition of working-class people that have a bigger role in the republican party so i think these announcements, the personnel announcements, come after a week that was pretty darn good, three major speeches, raising a lot of issues that are important, some issues that no republican in recent history has been willing to do, and we can talk about that a little bit. i think the campaign bottomed and is headed in the right direction. mark: you can see that trump's behind, right? i just want to make sure we agree on that, right? he is behind. >> i think if you take a look at the overall polls, he is definitely behind, but i

disagree with the margins. mark: i have known her for a long time and i get what she does and i get her theory of the case. trump would need to expand the number of voters he is currently appealing to. how does someone from breitbart which has a strong conservative following but not a lot of centrists, how does that person, and help them expand to more voters? >> i think the one thing that trump needs around him are people that agree with the basic vision. the republican party has been pictured as a country club party , much more interested in wall street than main street. i think a lot of the narrative is wrong, but it is a narrative the left has been using for a long time, and it has worked, so i think when a guy comes along in a populist age like donald trump has and says to the people that feel like the american dream is dead and says to those republicans who are unhappy

about with the party has failed to do, particularly in the last decade, that that is a powerful message and it is the right time for the message. he has everybody in the world telling him he has to drop it, it is wrong, it does not work, etc. and you have to bright people like kellyanne and bannon say, no, you are on the right track, let us help you express it more effectively and get the kind of political traction that you need to get. >> you mention two people. part of my concern for them is that they put two more chiefs in and there are not enough indians. i was looking at the virginia polls were he is down by 14 points and one of the reasons is clinton has 20 field offices. inare getting to the point the election where the ground game needs to kick in. even if you put two more chiefs on the top and the indians are not there, you are not going to fix most of the problem. >> love.

clearly they have a lot of work to do at the grassroots level. they are running against the clock and it will have to step all of these. you just mentioned the virginia poll. let me commented on it very quickly. it is a 14 point lead, 1000 lled, only 800 registered to vote. when they pulled in that same poll of likely voters, the leach ranks to seven or eight points. when they asked him about for candidates on the ticket, which the will be in virginia, the league goes to six or seven. i think that is a very manageable gap in the middle of august for the trump campaign to deal with. i think a lot of these races, if you listen to the narrative, you think we should just call the election off. i think the election will be a lot closer than people think and i believe he is giving signals in this last week in with these appointments that he is prepared to do things that can make this very competitive.

have paul ryan and mitch mcconnell stood in the way of the kind of changes donald trump wants to see? >> the last thing i want to be doing is make it any more difficult for the party to come together. i think paul ryan in the mitch mcconnell have had a different focus. i think republicans generally tend to talk about businesses instead of employees. they tend to talk about entrepreneurs, and i am all for entrepreneurs and so is donald trump, but most people are not going to work for themselves. they are going to work for somebody. the republican party is all too often looked as the party of the bosses instead of a party that reminds them of the people they were to next to every day. i think ronald reagan got that. that is why a lot of blue-collar workers went with him. so, i think what the metropolis trump is doing is very

consistent with the reagan vision of what the republican party should be and given the populist times we are living in and also the times we are living in as far as the threat for radical islam, that, he is the candidate that i think mitch mcconnell and paul ryan could learn a lot from and could probably teach him things they are more adept at. mark: he is running on a populist and nationalist message but anyone looking at his tax plan sees there is nothing for the middle class. tell me how that sticks with this establishment versus little guy? i disagree with your analysis of that tax plan. first of all, there are significant savings for people making up to $100,000. people making, i think it is $35,000 or below, there is no tax liability at all. plus, he did something i suspect my friends at the wall street

to do ahated, which was major change, a major increase in the tax credit can get for child care expenses. i remember when ronald reagan did something similar in the wall street journal wrote editorial after editorial against it, but i think donald trump understands there are a lot of different ways to invest in america. you can invest in stocks, or you can look that investments that parents make when they are raising their kids, and that's what he tried to do by putting that provision in. i think it is a much better middle-class approach quite frankly then what hillary clinton is talking about. >> >> we appreciate it. thank you for coming. ♪

>> you might be one of them because i understand where you come from. i must also say that your listeners, anybody that thinks are you totally come from will

be making a big mistake. mark: that was donald trump speaking with steve bannon from may. trout stuffers, and go but nbc news correspondent is forever. she is joining us from the trump tower. josh prenot's cover story ran in october and 2015 and calls in the most dangerous political operative in the donald trump campaign has been touting that. you both know a lot so let's go quick. ve one up on her colleagues. do you think this decision to shakeup was more instinctual or deposition? ut decision? >> he has not been comfortable

running a more traditional campaign. sources have told us he has been deeply unhappy for some time and .ow he is trusting has gut they feel very strongly and trump feels very strongly with the way he ran during the primaries, beating out the 16 candidates was the right way to go. coming up there, shooting from the hip, making headlines in refusing to apologize. sincest couple of months corey lewandowski lawton paul manafort took on more power, they tried to traditional liza professionalize the campaign, and you have seen donald trump struggle with that, trying to be conciliatory with republican party, reading from notes the other day when he was forced to endorse paul ryan and john mccain. that did not seem like a comfortable moment for him, and he is bringing on a longtime

friend and steve bannon that has been very antiestablishment. ringing them on is a real indication that donald trump is going to be going back to just doing it his way and not listening to anyone who is telling him to change. mark: josh, everyone should read your piece on bannon. it is an incredible insider piece. people think about breitbart and that that is about clicks and about pretty provocative things and sometimes more than that. he has been very sophisticated in taking opposition research and getting into the mainstream media. talk about bannon as a strategist that understands the media and political system. >> he is an interesting guy. he has a diagnosis for why conservatives failed to stop bill clinton in the 1990's and that diagnosis is they went too far, jumped over the cliff pursuing all of the rumors about events foster's murder.

the mainstream media and independent voters tuned him out. hillary clinton is a taxable but but only ifckable you focus on things that matter. group was ahead of the that put out the clinton cashbook. that wound up as a front-page new york times story and i think what you saw was the strategy play out where bannon understands if you can dig up real facts about clinton, that will drive down her honesty and her trustworthy numbers and you present those two investigative reporters, if there is news there, they will push it in the mainstream media. >> josh, your piece was great. bannon.ringly compare >> no, not me. andrew breitbart said that.

did a a filmmaker who documentary on sir palin. ty, were there any early seeds where this was not a surprise? >> this and certainly those inside the campaign heard the rumblings that the staff did not find out about this change until this morning. the rumblings that we heard from behind-the-scenes or that things were not going well between donald trump and paul manafort and that there was real tension, that donald trump was unhappy that metaphor -- paul manafort was not as involved as he wanted him to be. there has been talk of whether paul manafort would walk or be pushed out for quite some time. it is important to note that he was not officially pushed out. he was at the roundtable on camera trump tower.

i am told by everybody that he will be staying on. influenceng of his between donald trump or of donald trump is more of an indication of paul manafort will be talking to folks in washington in on the hill where he has been effective and letting kellyanne travel with trump and bannon influence what is going on in new york. mark: what kind of guy is bannon ? so many different jobs that you would not necessarily associate together. what if you like? >> he is a true washington character. man with a lunatic charisma, very aggressive. you can see why trump likes and. he wears his passion on his sleeve. he is all about being aggressive and antiestablishment. breitbart, under his leadership, was the outfit that helped push on john boehner and has been as critical of paul ryan as they were of boehner.

he is anti-washington, anti-establishment. he will foster those impulses of trump. bannon i think that is whybannon was brought in. mark: what do you think of the phrase lunatic charisma? >> i think that is an interesting phrase. >> before we go, has life changed since you have been dubbed a swan? how has it changed? >> i do not even know how to answer that. yes. it is changed dramatically. [laughter] outside trump tower tracking it all. we will talk about the intelligence briefing tomorrow. josh, he is a great piece and you should read if you want to understand mr. bannon. we want to talk about how the clinton campaign has responded

about all of these rumors regarding her health. if you are washing us -- watching us in washington dc the listen to us on the radio radio. be right back.

♪ mark: welcome back. joined by a democratic strategist from the newark democratic party and former advisor to hillary clinton. also a republican media strategist and consultant. >> thank you for joining us. they day, big shakeup, new message for trial. a repackaging of the muslim ban and the wall mark. what do you think about it? >> something had to happen.

we were in a place where this was a death spiral. i think this is where he is most comfortable. this is a change. this is the good news. knownk we pretty much trump has been aggressive and you will love the final 80 days of this campaign. you have a bunch of animals coming in here now. these guys are serious, play dirty, play hard, so i do not think clinton will got this morning and liked the news. thoughts? >> like, i do not know if we can use that word. i do not even say that. i would say it is alarming because he comes from a publication that has used language that is anti-muslim, anti-immigration, anti-women. i think this is something that

the hillary clinton, like the news or not, i think this is something they will be talking about and addressing. i sort of agree and i agree with your earlier reporting which says, donald trump is probably sitting around wondering why whatever it took for him to get through his primary is not working now. my sense is that this is a doubling down of everything that he did in the primary and i think we are going to see more of it, which to me is going to be more hateful, more bigoted and that is not who we are as a country. i think that is what is alarming. mark: ask you about the clinton's campaign decision after weeks of republican spreading rumors about her health, putting on a pretty long statement hitting back at trump but also trying to make the case that there is nothing wrong. what is the logic of responding to something like that? >> i do not know if he gives it more currency because i also think it is a little sexist. i would really love to know the comparison between donald trump and hillary clinton in terms of

campaign miles long. she works incredibly hard. when we had the riemer in new york, i have never seen anybody that works as hard as she does. to talk about someone's health and the way he is and the way republicans are, not only is it to ms. desk dismissive of her as a candidate but i actually think there is a touch of sexism. mark: your party is looking to on times ofe benghazi, rumored concussions. do you think that is supposed to inspire the base or a distraction? >> for donald trump to come after hillary clinton, this is a guy on the kentucky fried chicken night. i am not afraid of longevity. we should be, the republican should be talking about hillary clinton in context and defining this campaign

with we might have an hour things we did not get to, hillary clinton meeting with paul mccartney privately, both in cleveland and donald trump at his first national security briefing as a republican nominee. >> some people have been tracking the way he gets up and speeches and says, i have heard people have said, covering a couple pages. mark: you can head to bloombergpolitics to see what investors have to say about donald trump and the new bloombergpolitics pull. coming up on bloomberg west, the so-called godfather of the internet, that internet evangelist. until tomorrow, we will be back here saying that time, same bat channel. until then, sayonara. ♪

♪ it is thursday, august the 18th. i am rishaad salamat. this is "trending business". ♪ sydney and beijing, just some ports of our call. no relief in sight, exports declining in japan more than anticipated in july. imports also falling heavily. quite a diffent