A more disciplined Trump operation faces fresh headaches from outside allies and the candidate himself

When news broke that a top aide to Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was joining former President Donald Trump’s campaign last month, Trump advisers were livid, believing the aide was promoting himself, without permission of the campaign’s top brass.

Senior Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita called the newest team member, Brian Swenson, and “ripped into him,” according to two sources familiar with the conversation. The message was clear: If you want to keep your job, stop running your mouth, the source said. Swenson did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The episode was indicative of how Trump’s 2024 team has sought to focus the messaging and the media that surrounds the chaotic world of the front-runner for the GOP nomination. His team is viewed by both outside political operatives and current and former Trump officials as his most disciplined to date. Led by seasoned Republican strategists LaCivita and Susie Wiles, the team has sought to prevent the kinds of internal leaks that were ever-present during 2016 and throughout Trump’s presidency from damaging the former president as he seeks to regain the White House.

“They know they aren’t able to control him, he will always say and do what he wants,” one source familiar with the team’s dynamic told CNN, noting that Trump is known to ignore prepared remarks and solicit outside advice from a wide net of allies, often without the knowledge of his closest advisers. “But they can try to control everyone around him.”

The advisers who have spent the last year working to streamline his campaign’s messaging, however, have recently found themselves fighting an uphill battle. They’re attempting to navigate the wide span of Trump allies all itching to be a part of the action and leverage their ties to the former president in hopes of bolstering their influence in the months before the 2024 election.

As Trump’s primary lead has grown, so has the interest in what a second Trump administration would look like – in both policy and personnel. A slew of recent media reports have speculated on potential vice presidential picks and Cabinet members, citing anonymous sources.

“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,” a senior Trump campaign adviser told CNN, adding that the recent shift in the narrative around the former president has brought with it a surge in outside parties interested in joining a potential administration.

Trump’s senior advisers were recently surprised and annoyed when they learned Kash Patel, a former Trump administration official, was telling Trump allies he was part of the vetting effort for a potential vice presidential pick, according to three senior advisers who adamantly denied his involvement.

Patel, a Trump loyalist who climbed the ranks while Trump was in office, continues to hold sway with the former president and is widely viewed as someone who would likely serve in a national security capacity in a second administration.

“I am not nor have I ever been involved with any vetting process. President Trump and the campaign are solely in charge,” Patel said in a statement to CNN.

The frustration runs deep in the campaign.

“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,” a person close to Trump said. “They’re pissed people are running to reporters saying they’re in line for jobs that the Trump team hasn’t even discussed.”

However, some of those headaches come from Trump himself.

During a recent fundraiser, Trump began tossing names around for vice president, a source familiar with the conversations said.

“Who do we like for VP?” the former president asked donors and allies before batting around names with the crowd — a story that was eventually shared with reporters.