US President Donald Trump has ousted his campaign manager, as polls show a sharp decline in his support among the electorate with just more than three months to go until the election.
Brad Parscale, the Trump re-election campaign’s long-time manager, was demoted and Bill Stepien, a Republican operative who has ties to Trump going back to 2016, was moved up.
Parscale will remain in charge of digital and data strategies, as a senior advisor to the campaign, Trump said over social media posts.
The most recent major survey, by Quinnipiac University, showed former vice president Joe Biden, a Democrat, ahead of Trump 52 to 37 in national polling.
Other polls have shown Trump, a Republican, trailing Biden in key battleground states he must win to remain president.
The Quinnipiac poll had alarming data for Trump, showing him behind Biden even on the economy, which had long been his strongest point.
Voters gave the president a negative 35-62 percent approval rating on his coronavirus response. Only 39 per cent of likely voters said Trump cares about the “average American,” while for Biden 59 per cent of respondents answered in the positive.
Parscale has been with Trump almost since he announced his candidacy for president in 2015. He was a key architect of the last campaign’s online presence.
There have been repeated reports that Trump has been disappointed with Parscale of late, including over a poorly attended rally in Oklahoma last month, which earned the campaign ridicule, after having sparked alarm that such a gathering would lead to a coronavirus contagion.
