So much for Donald Trump 2.0, the sober, "more presidential" version programmed by Paul Manafort, the political guru he hired in a campaign shake-up earlier this month.

Chafing at guidance to tone down his larger-than-life personality -- and irritated by Manafort's purported self-promotion and his descriptions of the candidate as "projecting an image" to primary voters -- Trump, the Republicans' presidential front-runner, reportedly has ditched the advice .

In recent campaign appearances, on Twitter and in TV interviews, Trump has returned to the freewheeling bombast, and impolitic insults of his competitors, that seized the GOP grassroots by storm last year.

Inside the campaign, Politico reports, Trump has shifted some of Manafort's responsibilities back to Corey Lewandowski, the billionaire's embattled campaign manager, who was just cleared of assault charges in Florida. Lewandowsky was effectively demoted when Trump hired Manafort, a GOP insider, in part to give his insurgent campaign an air of professionalism and plot strategy for the convention.

Citing multiple sources close to the campaign, Politico reported Tuesday that Trump "is bristling at efforts to implement a more conventional presidential campaign strategy," and has "expressed misgivings" about granting Manafort so much power within his organization.

The trigger for Trump's ire, according to Politico: news reports that Manafort, in a closed-door meeting with Republican leaders, said the celebrity businessman and former reality TV star was " projecting an image " for voters and would begin dialing it back as the convention approaches.

At the same time, the sources said, Trump "also expressed concern about Manafort bringing several former lobbying colleagues into the campaign" and his work in other countries hostile to the U.S.

Neither Lewandowski nor Manafort responded to Politico's requests for comment on the story, "although Manafort on Sunday during an interview on Fox News blamed Lewandowski's regime for shortcomings in the campaign's delegate wrangling operation," according to the report.

Lewandowski's allies, meanwhile, "responded by privately questioning whether Manafort has done anything to improve the situation," Politico reports. "They grumble that Manafort has spent a disproportionate amount of time on television — just as Trump himself has been avoiding the Sunday morning talk show circuit at Manafort's urging."

The report of internal discord comes at a critical time for Trump: He's poised to take a giant step towards the Republican presidential nomination, with Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island and Connecticut all voting Tuesday and 172 Republican delegates up for grabs.

Late Sunday, Trump's competitors for the GOP nomination, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, announced late Sunday night that they have joined forces to try and block him from getting the 1,237 delegates he'll need to win.

Cruz and Kasich said they'd tag-team Trump in Indiana, New Mexico and Oregon, hoping to consolidate the anti-Trump vote and siphon off enough delegates between them to force an open convention in Cleveland this summer. Within hours, however, the alliance looked shaky at best: Kasich and Cruz bickered on the campaign trail over whether to tell their supporters to vote for the other guy, and experts suggested the move to stop Trump was too little, too late.

Meanwhile, Cruz, who analysts say has been mathematically eliminated from winning enough delegates to capture the GOP nomination through the primary system, has outmaneuvered Trump at the local level. He's packed state party conventions with his supporters, gotten them appointed to important convention committees and swept up uncommitted delegates, positioning himself to become the nominee if Trump comes up short in the delegate count.

Experts say concern about Cruz's ground-level strategy prompted Trump to make campaign upgrades, bringing on the experienced Manafort and lowering the profile of Lewandowski, who made headlines for allegedly manhandling a female reporter after a campaign event in March. Prosecutors, citing lack of clear evidence, dropped the case.

But Trump's new hires polarized his organization between the loyalists and the newcomers, and led Stuart Jolly, his former national field director and a long-time friend of Lewandowski's, to resign in frustration.

In his resignation letter, Jolly warned Trump that a shift away from the tactics that brought him to the cusp of the Republican presidential nomination is a major strategic blunder that will backfire.

"We did these simple things, we won, and we continued to win because we followed a winning formula," Jolly wrote to Trump , according to the Washington Post. "You know my advice to you, and my advice has not changed since the beginning. My hope is that you will continue to listen to those who have propelled you to victory."

Trump seems to agree.

Two weeks ago, after sweeping the New York primary, Trump quit calling Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, his chief competitor for the nomination, "Lyin' Ted," referring to him as "Senator Cruz" in what reporters described as a remarkably gracious speech at his victory rally. Analysts immediately pointed to Manafort as the reason Trump took a more formal tone, rather than his earlier habits of boasting about the win and disparaging his rivals.

At campaign rallies on Monday, however, Trump not only resurrected the "Lyin' Ted" nickname in his stump speech, he unveiled a new one: "One for 38 Kasich," a reference to the Ohio governor's lone home-state primary win.

Lyin' Ted Cruz and 1 for 38 Kasich are unable to beat me on their own so they have to team up (collusion) in a two on one. Shows weakness! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2016