Donald Trump expanded his circle of senior advisers on Thursday, adding five new aides including his former 2016 presidential campaign chief as the campaign attempts to find effective attacks against Kamala Harris, according to people familiar with the matter.

The former president brought Taylor Budowich, Alex Pfeiffer and Alex Bruesewitz from the Trump-aligned Maga Inc political action committee, as well as previous Trump campaign veterans Corey Lewandowski and Tim Murtaugh.

The new additions are coming onto the Trump campaign as senior advisers, meaning they are lateral hires to a campaign still being run by co-campaign chiefs Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, the people said.

Lewandowski previously ran the 2016 campaign but does not have the same role again. He has remained an informal adviser to Trump since the first presidential campaign, and will continue that function but in a more formal capacity through the final stretch to November, one of the people said.

Murtaugh, who was the communications director for the 2020 campaign, is returning in a broader role, as will Budowich, Pfeiffer and Bruesewitz, one of the people said. Bruesewitz has a large online following and is expected to help direct social outreach.

The additions came after senior aides on the Trump campaign found themselves open to criticism and challenges to their positions after perhaps the rockiest stretch for the campaign since it launched in 2022, the Guardian has previously reported.

The summer months have historically been the time that Trump makes changes to his campaign chiefs, as he did in 2016 when he installed Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, and David Bossie to take the reins, as well as in 2020, when he replaced Brad Parscale with Bill Stepien.

The past month has been bad enough for the Trump campaign that advisers have taken those challenges – whether from enemies real or perceived – as serious threats or slights that necessitate devoting time and effort to slap down.

Later on Thursday, Trump held a press event at his New Jersey golf club, during which he said he felt “entitled to personal attacks” on his Democratic opponent.

During what had been pitched as a news conference, the former president delivered a meandering 45-min speech that more closely resembled one of his rallies – repeating many of his signature lies and falsehoods – before he took any questions from reporters.

Trump was asked if he agrees with the argument that his current strategy of personal attacks on Harris isn’t working. Trump said he believes he is “entitled to personal attacks” because he is “very angry” at “what [Harris] has done to the country”, adding: “I don’t have a lot of respect for her.”

Trump was also asked about his hiring of five new operatives, and denied that this was a sign of a shifting strategy. He said Corey Lewandowski was coming in as a “personal envoy”.

The Harris campaign tried to make the most of the event, issuing a sarcastic advisory to reporters beforehand letting them know Trump was primed to “ramble incoherently” in a location that is “not a battleground state”.

“Tune in for the same old thing,” the briefing read.