Donald Trump Sacks Campaign Manager

Zacheaus Somorin with agency reports

Donald Trump shook his presidential campaign ton Monday with the sudden dismissal of his controversial campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski.

“The Donald J. Trump Campaign for President, which has set a historic record in the Republican Primary having received almost 14 million votes, has today announced that Corey Lewandowski will no longer be working with the campaign,” Trump spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said in a statement Monday. “The campaign is grateful to Corey for his hard work and dedication and we wish him the best in the future.”

Lewandowki’s abrupt departure is the campaign’s most significant staff change to date, and signals an acknowledgment from Trump and his inner circle that big change is necessary ahead of the general election. Trump has suffered major setbacks since becoming his party’s presumptive nominee last month. He has come under intense criticism from party leaders, major donors and rank-and-file Republicans for an array of issues, including his response to last weekend’s terrorist attack in Orlando that killed 49 people.

The news of Lewandowski’s departure was first reported by The New York Times. Lewandowski could not be reached for comment by phone. Trump’s inability — and apparent lack of interest — in toning down his rhetoric going into the general election season has deeply troubled the party. There is widespread concern that without a dramatic course change, Trump will continue to be significantly outmatched by presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on many fronts, including organization, communications and fundraising.

The Lewandowski news comes amid deep internal tensions that have roiled the Trump campaign — sometimes even played out in public. Lewandowski was well known for being fiercely loyal to his boss — he is even a Trump delegate from New Hampshire — and also deeply protective of his direct access to the candidate. This dynamic created a series of problems as the Trump campaign began to hire staffers and expand its operations, including when Trump enlisted veteran GOP strategist Paul Manafort earlier this year. It was also viewed as a huge source of distraction at a time when Trump needed to devote all of his campaign’s resources to preparing for November.

The decision to fire Lewandowski was made swiftly in a Monday morning weekly meeting with Trump’s family members. A combination of falling poll numbers and pressure from many in Trump’s inner circle ultimately led to the decision, a Trump adviser said. A separate GOP source said

Lewandowski’s firing was so sudden that he was on a call with Republican National Committee staffers Monday morning, just hours before his firing.
The ouster comes after a series of firestorms — from Trump’s attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage to the suggestion that President Barack Obama perhaps played a role int he Orlando massacre.

Lewandowski encouraged this behavior, rather than prodding the candidate back on message, the adviser said. And members of the Trump family, his friends, as well as Manafort, had been upping their efforts to convince Trump that Lewandowski’s guidance had grown harmful to the candidate and the campaign.

Some advisers hope the latest move will allow the campaign to ramp up more quickly by building out a communications team, a rapid response effort and by ramping up their political machine in battleground states, an adviser said. “This has not been a campaign, it’s been a concert tour,” the adviser said, adding this could be the turning point for the campaign to get more serious.

A second adviser added a note of caution though, saying if Trump isn’t willing to behave in a more disciplined fashion, then Lewandowski’s departure may do little good. “I don’t know if it helps Trump personally unless he is willing to completely change through the Manafort model,” the adviser added.

This marks the latest fallout in the power struggle between Lewandowski and Manafort — ultimately seen as a major victory for Manafort that could allow him to run the campaign in a more traditional sense. Some sources within the campaign are expecting Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, to fill the power void that Lewandowski leaves behind.

The Trump campaign has started hiring what one source called “middle level staffers with political experience” in key battle ground states across the country, scheduled to start after the July convention. Despite the Trump campaign’s efforts to create a more well-oiled machine, they are still not operating at full capacity due to internal feuding.

“No one is really sure who is running things. It’s very disorganized,” said one GOP source working with the campaign. Most of the new hires have not begun their actual jobs yet, but are still in the process of filling out the enormous amount of paperwork — including disclosures and noncompetes that come with being employed by Trump, said one source.

There are particular frustrations that the campaign has yet to hire a traditional communications team that can handle the high volume of media requests that comes with being a nominee for president, according to two sources in and around the campaign. Currently, the team consists of only Hope Hicks, Trump’s spokeswoman.

“No one is managing the message,” one source close to the campaign told CNN. Last month, the campaign hired long-time consultant and operative Jim Murphy as political director, replacing Rick Wiley after clashes with Lewandowski and other original Trump hires led to Wiley’s abrupt departure from the campaign.

One of the top priorities with Murphy is in place was building out the campaign’s communications team, this person told CNN.

In what was widely viewed as an incredible demonstration of the deep animosity towards Lewandowski from some factions of the campaign, one Trump adviser, Michael Caputo, tweeted this on Monday minutes after the news broke about Lewandowski: “Ding dong the witch is dead!”