Profile of Paul Manafort

Dubai: Who is this Paul Manafort who has suddenly crept out of the woodwork?

They say he is a carbon copy of his boss Donald Trump. An entrepreneur and a political strategist who has polished and varnished the images of some of the most notorious leaders of the world, according to Fortune.

Like Trump, he is an immigrant. His grandfather left the shores of Italy in 1919 looking for a future in the US. There in Connecticut he set up a construction company.

Manafort’s father, Paul Manafort Sr, and three brothers built the company into Manafort Bros. It became a leading site development in New Britain, near New Haven. Paul Sr was elected mayor of New Britain thrice. Politics ran in the son’s veins and he was drawn to Trump like a magnet. The reason was simple — only Trump understood the working class American.

Manafort attended Georgetown University and it was there that he helped found the Kiddie Corps, a powerful group of young Republicans. He earned his law degree and joined the Ford Administration in 1973 in the presidential personnel department. His skills of wheeling and dealing came into play when Ford faced a primary challenge from Ronald Reagan. Manafort wooed delegates and was instrumental in ensuring Ford clinched the nomination.

Success followed — he played pivotal roles in Reagan’s campaigns and George H.W. Bush’s victory in 1988. He was also in charge of the convention that nominated Bob Dole. It was only when he lobbied to head the McCain convention that the candidate thwarted his ambitions because he had worked with the pro-Russian leader of Ukraine.

Manafort co-founded Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly, lobbying company alongside partners Stone, a confidante of Trump, and Charles Black, a strategist.

One client was Jonas Savimbi, leader of UNITA, the pro-Western rebel army fighting the Communist government in Angola. Manafort helped salvage Savimbi’s reputation in Washington. He got him millions of dollars in aid from the Reagan and Bush Administrations.

The regime of Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines paid the company $950,000 (Dh3.4 million) a year to lobby for funding, as well as varnish his reputation. Mobutu Seko of Zaire the infamous dictator, was also a client.

Viktor Yanukoviych, the then prime minister, “won” the vote for the Ukraine presidency, despite opposition from the US which described him as pro-Russian. Yanukovych turned to Paul Manafort to build his reputation.

In America, Paul Manfort was a pariah. Until Donald Trump came along.