Donald Trump has fired his campaign manager amid growing signs of turmoil surrounding his bid for the US Presidency.
Corey Lewandoski was dumped by the Trump campaign which provided no reason for his ouster.
Meanwhile, there are fresh signs that Republican leaders may make a last-ditch attempt to stop Mr. Trump from becoming the party's Presidential candidate in this November's election.
With this report on a dramatic day in Presidential politics, our US Bureau Chief Simon Marks.
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The news of Corey Lewandowski's sudden dismissal as Donald Trump's campaign manager came without warning and without explanation.
A statement by Donald Trump's spokeswoman thanked him for his service, noted his achievements in helping navigate Donald Trump through the Republican primary contests, but indicated that from here on out the campaign for the White House will be in different hands.
Trump advisers like Barry Bennett sought to portray the move as something that had been in the works for weeks.
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Mr. Lewandowski was a lightning rod for critics who accused him of being overly aggressive, overly protective of Donald Trump….and the architect of a policy to "let Donald be Donald".
In other words, not to force the presumed Republican candidate to act more Presidential.
Certainly, on the campaign trail in recent days, Mr. Trump has appeared completely out of anyone's control……performances like this one worrying those Republicans who hoped that after of the Orlando nightclub massacre he would reveal Presidential timber more befitting the office.
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Shoot from the hip performances like that are consigning Donald Trump's poll ratings into free-fall.
They've been plummeting over the last week…reversing a lead that he managed to establish over Hillary Clinton.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans - many of them up for re-election in November - are bailing on Mr. Trump….recoiling from ideas that he's proposed that include permitting the racial profiling of criminal suspects.
And over the weekend the most powerful elected Republican in Washington, Paul Ryan - the speaker of the House of Representatives - suggested that he wouldn't mind if delegates to the party's convention made a last-ditch attempt to dump Trump.
TAKE RYAN SOUNDBITE (Super: Courtesy "Meet the Press", NBC News)
"The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do anything that is contrary to their conscience. Of course I wouldn't do that. Look, believe me Chuck, this is a very strange situation, this is a very unique nominee, but I feel as a responsibility institutionally as the Speaker of the House that I should not be leaving some chasm in the middle of the party because you know what that would do, that would definitely knock us out of the White House".
AXX Mr. Ryan having offered Republicans encouragement to think about trying to topple the nominee..they are reportedly doing so.
More than 1000 are said to have participated in a conference call on Monday to discuss whether there is a way of taking action either before next month's convention or during it to come up with another candidate.
But is it possible at this late stage to derail the process?
Aaron Blake edits a political blog called "The Fix" for The Washington Post.
AXX It's within their power to do that . They can change the rules at the convention if they want to, they can make all this happen if they so desire. The problem with that is that all of the people who voted for DT would not be happy with that. You would have chaos at the convention. You would have a whole segment of the Republican electorate who would be very turned off by that decision. So, it's a very unlikely thing that they would do"
TRX: Unlikely he says….but for Republicans hoping to avoid a Democratic landslide in November, the options may be narrowing.
The Trump team hopes that by firing his campaign manager they've communicated that they understand the need to adopt a more moderate tone.
But whether the candidate himself can do that….well, watch this space.
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