Will Trump shake up his team?

Reports exploded on X, The Daily Mail, and The Gateway Pundit that Donald J. Trump will change campaign leaders. Rumors – apparently coming from former Trump loyalists who have quit him – have Trump ready to fire his two senior campaign aides, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles. The particular sources, considering their bias, are probably less than reliable. But conservative and America First voices on X have called for Trump to oust those two managers. Furthermore, the archives of X, going back to when it called itself Twitter, contain some damning posts by LaCivita that strongly suggests Trump should fire him, if he hasn’t actually decided to.

Who are Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles?

Chris LaCivita, currently Trump’s lead campaign manager, describes himself as: “GOP Political Strategist | Combat Wounded Marine | Pittsburgh Native.” The name Susie Wiles has too many X profiles to count associated with it. If this is the correct profile (it has no verification mark), then she describes herself thus:

Senior Advisor, President Donald J. Trump. DJTFP 2016, 2020, 2024. Unfinished Business.

The current content in both profiles looks good, from the point of view of anyone supporting Trump. But Susie Wiles’ posts are mostly reposts of material from other users, like:

• Former Gov. Doug Ducey (R-Ariz.),
• Kari Lake, candidate for the U.S. Senate from Arizona, and
• Influencers like Jack Posobiec, Tim Pool, Greg Gutfeld, and the Trump War Room account.

Chris LaCivita has been sharing stories about:

• The third anniversary of the abandonment of Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan,
• Gov. Tim Walz’ (D-Minn.) record as governor, and his National Guard service record (and tendency to embellish it), and
• A mini-scandal about the Harris campaign editing headlines from sympathetic media organs – without first asking the permission of their editors.

But Chris LaCivita was not always so loyal. These posts cast the gravest doubt on his loyalty:

The second is from 2021, but Trump loyalists started pointing this out toward the end of July. That’s two and a half weeks before the firing rumors started. Then, consider this from AF (“America First”) Post:

And this reply:

Was Chris LaCivita planning to displace Trump?

On July 30, Mike Cernovich accused LaCivita of “preparing a coup against Trump.” His speculation centered on the abrupt disavowal by Trump of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.

Project 2025 still exists, but the web site hasn’t seen any updates since July 31. It still lists Paul Dans as its Director – but he resigned on August 1. It is (or was) a job-matching board and detailed agenda for the first 180 days of a second Trump administration.

That Chris LaCivita had engineered the disavowal of this project, would be in keeping with his sharing of that National Review article calling Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton “corrupt.” Both acts are those of a “moderate” trying to shut down everything that makes the Trump agenda special.

The Daily Mail piece quotes two former Trump associates, both of whom resigned or were fired:

• Anthony Scaramucci, former communications director, and
• Sarah Matthews, former spokeswoman.

These two describe Trump as terrifically angry, fearing that he’s about to lose, and sulking at Mar-A-Lago instead of campaigning. But in fact Trump did hold a rally today in Asheville, North Carolina.

Trump does not appear to be sulking. In fact, he sent a representative to address the Hanover County Republican Committee, meeting tonight in Hanover, Virginia.

All of which to say that Scaramucci and Matthews are unreliable witnesses. But that aside, others have been calling for LaCivita and Wiles’ ouster for weeks.

A building groundswell

Besides Mike Cernovich, Gab.com CEO Andrew Torba urged Trump to fire LaCivita on July31:

Torba also backed up his statement that Trump should return to regular posting on X, even though that might diminish his own traffic.

The most serious groundswell for firing Chris LaCivita began last Friday (August 9):

Also on Friday, the AF Post account shared this video of Nicholas J. Fuentes insisting that LaCivita must depart:

Influencer Ashley St. Clair said Team Trump needs “a shakeup,” but didn’t say exactly what.

Two days ago, this influencer backed up the story of LaCivita suggesting – on January 6, 2021 – that Vice-President Pence gather signatures on an Amendment XXV Section 4 Declaration of Presidential Inability.

Last night, Delaware activist Lauren Witzke shared footage of Candace Owens urging the firing:

Early this afternoon, user Michael Rizzo was only slightly more charitable toward LaCivita and Wiles.

Sebastian Gorka covered the story today on his afternoon podcast.

None of this is to suggest that Donald Trump is in serious trouble. Jim Hoft at The Gateway Pundit emphasizes that Trump is winning, not losing. He cites these two posts from Rasmussen Reports that make his point:

See also this video:

But if Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles are indeed watering down the Trump message, then they must go. At a minimum, they have some serious explaining to do.