Branstad says Trump’s staff upheaval signals pivot to general election

DES MOINES - Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said he thinks turnover atop Donald Trump's presidential campaign simply is a sign of Trump pivoting to the general election.

Branstad also said he thinks his son, Eric Branstad, still has a job as Trump's Iowa chairman after Trump's national campaign chairman parted ways with the campaign Monday morning.

Trump's national campaign manager Corey Lewandowski 'will no longer be working with the campaign,” the Trump campaign confirmed Monday.

Multiple media reports said the move was made in response to the presumptive Republican nominee's flagging poll numbers.

When asked Monday morning what he thinks is going wrong with Trump's campaign, Gov. Branstad said he thinks the change in top personnel simply is a shift from the primary to the general election.

'I think he's in the process now of retooling the campaign and focusing on the general election,” Branstad said Monday during his weekly news conference.

Gov. Branstad's son Eric will serve as the Trump campaign's Iowa director, according to multiple media reports. Gov. Branstad said his son's hiring has not yet been made official, and the campaign has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Branstad said he thinks his son still has a job with the Trump campaign despite Lewandowski's departure.

'I don't think so (that Eric Branstad's future with the campaign is in doubt),” Gov. Branstad said Monday. 'He's excited about getting involved in it. It's certainly a different campaign than we've ever seen before.”

Aside from hiring Eric Branstad as state director, the Trump campaign has not made any visible organizational moves in Iowa, which most election projectors expect will be a tossup state in the general election.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, has hired Iowa campaign staff.

Branstad, who often reminds reporters that he has never lost an election in Iowa, said he thinks Trump will get professional campaign help with that grassroots organization here.

'It's a nontraditional campaign that he's run (so far), and I'm sure will run,” Branstad said. 'But I think he's going to bring in some professionals that have been through campaigns before that can help him in doing this.

'And I would just say don't count him out. I've been through a lot of campaigns, and I've never lost an election. But I've been predicted to lose time and time again.”