Trump campaign sick of outside allies floating 'idiotic' ideas for his second term: report

Donald Trump's campaign has been plagued by infighting over public comments about policy plans and staffing suggestions for a potential second term.

According to CNN sources, senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita recently "ripped into" new team member Brian Swanson, who had alerted the media that he was switching from Vivek Ramaswamy's team to join the former president's campaign. It's the latest in a growing furstration from Trump's inner circle about insiders and outsiders alike speculating to the media what a second administration would look like, reported CNN.

“Nobody came out of the woodwork to say they wanted to be a Cabinet secretary 12 months ago when things were really dire and no one wanted to be associated with us,” said a senior Trump campaign adviser.

Senior advisers were recently caught off guard when they learned former Trump administration official Kash Patel was telling the ex-president's allies that he was helping to screen potential running mates, according to three senior advisers, although both those sources and Patel himself vehemently denied that he was involved with the vetting.

“When you’re trying to be disciplined and run a sophisticated campaign, it gets annoying when people who aren’t working on the campaign are creating headaches for the team,” said a person close to Trump. “They’re [upset] people are running to reporters saying they’re in line for jobs that the Trump team hasn’t even discussed.”

The campaign issued an official statement denying reports about "Project 2025," an effort led by the Heritage Foundation to staff a second Trump administration with loyalists, and senior advisers are angry that the America First Policy Institute, an outfit led by former administration staffer Brooke Rollins, has been promoting itself as an influence over personnel decisions.

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“They’re vetting people for a future Trump administration? Who? We have no insight into these people,” said a campaign official.

Patel angered the campaign again when he told former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon that a second Trump administration would target journalists for prosecution, although Patel continues to hold sway with the former president and is seen as likely to serve in some national security capacity in a potential second term.

“Idiotic comments like this have nothing to do with our campaign,” a Trump campaign official said about the Patel interview.