NYT’s Nick Confessore looks at the Trump campaign’s reliance on the RNC:

Some Republicans believe that with the fall campaign weeks away, the party should focus its money and efforts down ballot to protect Republicans’ congressional base. That would mean quietly ignoring Mr. Trump’s call this month for a 50-state field operation and instead emphasizing congressional districts and swing states that are also Senate and House battlegrounds.

“They can’t do anything publicly — you can’t rebuke your nominee,” said Liam P. Donovan, a former aide to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “But you could allocate resources to places where it helps up and down the ballot.”

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CNN’s Teddy Schleifer looks at the shake-up in the Trump high command and its impact on the GOP donor world.

The cost of that move? Reviving concerns about Trump’s willingness to do what is needed to win.

“The first response would be ‘who?’ And the second a realization that he has no intention of even making this thing particularly close,” said Liam Donovan, a former GOP finance official who has been sharply critical of Trump.

“I think the message conveyed — that Manafort was reining him in and this is a return to letting Trump be Trump — will spook people who have been waiting for the pivot that never comes.”

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