Jane Onyanga-Omara, and Doug Stanglin

USA TODAY

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is sagging in the polls in key battleground states 82 days before the November election, has shaken up his campaign again in an effort to double-down on the style that won him a resounding victory in the Republican primaries.

Breitbart News’ executive chairman Stephen Bannon was appointed the campaign CEO and pollster Kellyanne Conway was promoted to campaign manager, Trump's campaign announced in a statement Wednesday.

Bannon, a former naval officer and investment banker with no previous presidential campaign experience, is temporarily stepping down from Breitbart News to take on the new position "designed to bolster the business-like approach of Mr. Trump's campaign," the statement said.

Bannon, who also wrote and directed the 2011 documentary The Undefeated, about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has long championed Trump's straight-talk, populist style.

His bare-knuckled Breitbart News site, reflecting a deep mistrust of the political establishment, has often criticized Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

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Conway, a Republican strategist and pollster, has worked on the campaigns of several GOP candidates, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Sen. Ted Cruz and,notably, Rep. Mike Pence, the vice-presidential nominee.

"They're terrific people, they're winners, they're champs, and we need to win it," Trump said of the two, according to the Associated Press.

Corey Lewandowski, who was fired as Trump's campaign manager in June, told CNN on Wednesday that Conway "will help with any gender gap problems that he (Trump) may have."

"You've got a candidate who wants to win. This is a clear indication of that. If you look at Stephen Bannon and what they've built at Breitbart, it's win at all costs,” said Lewandowski, who remains close to Trump. “And I think that really makes some people on the left very afraid because they're willing to say and do things that others in the mainstream media wouldn't do.”

“The campaign wants to prove to the Clinton people that they're going to take this fight directly to her,” he noted.

Robby Mook, campaign manager for the Hillary Clinton campaign, told reporters that the new hires mean that Trump “has decided to double down on his most small, nasty and divisive instincts.”

At a rally in Cleveland, Clinton said, "There is no new Donald Trump -- this is it."

"They can make him read new words from a teleprompter, but he is still the same man who insults Gold Star families, demeans women, mocks people with disabilities and thinks he knows more about (Islamic State) than our generals," the Democratic presidential nominee said.

Trump on Tuesday signaled his determination not to water down his message, despite urging from many establishment Republicans.

“You know, I am who I am,” he told a local Wisconsin television station Tuesday. “It’s me. I don’t want to change. Everyone talks about, ‘Oh, well you’re going to pivot, you’re going to.’ I don’t want to pivot. I mean, you have to be you. If you start pivoting, you’re not being honest with people.”

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He told the news agency that Paul Manafort will remain as his campaign chair.

In a statement, Manafort said it was "imperative" the campaign continued to expand the team with "top-tier talent."

He said Bannon and Conway "will undoubtedly help take the campaign to new levels of success."

The overhaul also comes amid reports in The New York Times and by the Associated Press regarding Manafort's work for the political party of Ukraine’s then-president, Viktor Yanukovych, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The AP report on Wednesday alleged that Manafort helped Yanukovych's pro-Russian governing party secretly route at least $2.2 million in payments to two prominent Washington lobbying firms in 2012.

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The campaign shakeup, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes two months after Trump fired Lewandowski after advisers raised questions about Lewandowski's aggressive style.

Opinion surveys show Trump behind his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton nationally and in key states.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, likened the move to campaign readjustments in past presidential contests. “This is a good thing, this is what Ronald Reagan did when he brought Jim Baker in," he said on Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends.

“The campaign is getting bigger and bigger and bigger," he said. "A lot of people think he has no organization. Good, I’d like them to think that. The reality is I’ve now traveled to a number of states with Donald and I’ve seen the organization that he has.”