A top aide to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Sunday that there will only be one ballot at the Republican convention this summer, with Trump winning.
“The dialogue and the narrative of this campaign isn’t focusing on the real issue,” Trump convention manager Paul Manafort said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday. “The real issue is there’s not going to be a second ballot.”
“There are many paths to [a delegate majority] for Donald Trump, between now and middle of June,” Manafort said. “We are working all of those paths.”
Manafort said that the Trump campaign does not have to win Indiana in May, countering pundit claims that Trump’s chance to win a majority turns on the state.
Manafort said Trump’s potential path to 1,237 delegates includes New Jersey, which also votes on June 7th.
“We’re probably going to do very well,” he said.
Manafort downplayed Sen. Ted Cruz’s victory Saturday in Wyoming.
He said Trump’s campaign “didn’t even play there because it was a closed system, and we didn’t want to waste our money dealing with party bosses.”
“The states that we just finished — this was the time when Cruz was supposed to be ahead,” Manafort said. “With Cruz, he wins the reddest of red states, where you get voterless primaries, where the rules favors organization versus appeal to the voters.”
“Trump wins in states that we have to win the presidency,” Manafort said.
Trump’s hiring of Manafort as convention manager was part of an apparent effort by Trump add Republican professionals to his campaingn and to reduce the responsibilities of his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski.
Lewandowski said earlier on “Fox News Sunday” that he is glad to have Manafort onboard.
