Donald Trump Fires Corey Lewandowski, His Campaign Manager
By MAGGIE HABERMAN
Donald J. Trump has fired his divisive campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, a move that comes as the presumptive Republican nominee faces challenges as he heads into the general election.
“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,” the campaign spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said in a statement. “The campaign is grateful to Corey for his hard work and dedication and we wish him the best in the future.”
Mr. Lewandowski steered Mr. Trump with a general approach of “let Trump be Trump” through his upstart first-time campaign.
With the Republican National Convention looming next month, Mr. Trump is facing the urgent task of broadening his team to include people with previous presidential campaign experience. Mr. Trump also has been turning his attention to fund-raising for the first time, which Mr. Lewandowski had assumed oversight of and something that has gone slowly for the campaign. The campaign has aired no ads for the general election campaign and there has been no “super PAC” that received a clear public blessing from Mr. Trump and his top advisers.
The loss of Mr. Lewandowski was intended as part of a larger shift toward the final sprint of the race, according to those briefed on the matter.
Mr. Trump had faced increasing concerns from allies and donors, as well as his children, about how equipped Mr. Lewandowski, who had never worked on a national race before, was to steer the next phase of the campaign. It is a move that could reassure donors and Republicans more broadly that he can adjust toward a November election strategy.
Two people briefed on the move, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Mr. Lewandowski was fired.
The campaign manager was seen as having a hostile relationship with many members of the national press corps who cover Mr. Trump, and many officials at the Republican National Committee had strained relationships with him.
And Mr. Lewandowski was often at odds with Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, Paul Manafort, who was brought on in March when the candidate seemed poised for a lengthy fight over delegates.
Mr. Lewandowski was said to have resisted certain moves that would have increased the number of staff members, at times blocking Mr. Manafort from making hires or later undoing them.
But the people briefed on Mr. Lewandowski’s departure said that the circumstances went well beyond any particular episode or any particular relationship. Mr. Lewandowski had a penchant for making headlines about himself that overshadowed his boss, including being charged with misdemeanor battery, a charge later dropped, after he was accused of grabbing a reporter as she approached Mr. Trump with a question in Jupiter, Fla., on March 8, a night when the candidate won Republican state primary contests.
In a brief series of interviews on Monday afternoon, Mr. Lewandowski tried to brush aside questions about the internal circumstances of his departure, and suggested that Mr. Trump future success could only be good for him.
“If Donald Trump wins, that’s good for Corey Lewandowski,” Mr. Lewandowski said on CNN. He declined to answer a direct question about whether he had looked to place negative stories about Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is close to the candidate and who has played a larger role in the campaign lately. Asked on CNN whether he knew why he was let go, Mr. Lewandowski professed not to know.
One person stressed that the move had been in the works for many weeks, particularly since it became clear that Mr. Trump would be the nominee. The person added that the campaign is now focusing on bringing the party together, including hiring new staff members and adjusting to the race against Hillary Clinton. And there had been a desire for many weeks to make changes ahead of the Republican National Convention, July 18-21 in Cleveland.
While Mr. Lewandowski’s departure was not portrayed as tied to Mr. Trump’s recent spate of difficulties, the candidate has been facing withering criticism for his attacks on the federal judge overseeing a fraud case against Trump University, and his response to the June 12 massacre of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando, Fla., which he used to reiterate his call for a ban on Muslims entering the country.
And Mr. Trump’s communications team, kept slim under Mr. Lewandowski’s purview, found itself swamped by an increasing barrage of attacks from Hillary Clinton and the Democrats in recent weeks.
Mr. Lewandowski, 42, a New Hampshire resident with deep ties to the state, had made himself a delegate to the convention months ago. He is still the chairman of the state’s delegation to the convention.
Few inside the campaign were given any advance warning about the dismissal of Mr. Lewandowski, who was on the campaign’s daily 8:30 a.m. conference call on Monday, according to a person briefed on the developments.
On Twitter, some campaign staff members rejoiced at the news of Mr. Lewandowski’s departure.
“Ding dong the witch is dead!” wrote Michael Caputo, a Trump communications aide who was said to have been antagonized by Mr. Lewandowski.
