Trump Brings Back 2016 Campaign Manager Known for ‘Letting Trump Be Trump’

Corey Lewandowski, the controversial campaign chief who helped deliver Donald Trump to the White House in 2016, has returned to former president’s campaign as it works to regain its footing following the surprise swap of Joe Biden for Kamala Harris atop the Democratic ticket.

Lewandowski, who had remained an informal Trump advisor for the past eight years, is now going to advise the campaign’s senior leadership, as first reported by Politico.

The campaign is also adding other Trump veterans to their ranks as part of the shake-up. Tim Murtaugh, who was the communications director for his campaign in 2020, will be joining the team. Alex Pfeiffer and Alex Bruesewitz, who were top officials for an outside super PAC, are also coming aboard.

“As we head into the home stretch of this election, we are continuing to add to our impressive campaign team,” Trump co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement.

“Corey Lewandowski, Taylor Budowich, Alex Pfeiffer, Alex Bruesewitz, and Tim Murtaugh are all veterans of prior Trump campaigns and their unmatched experience will help President Trump prosecute the case against Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the most radical ticket in American history.”

Who Is Corey Lewandowski?

Lewandowski, 50, was appointed to run the fledgling Trump campaign starting in June 2015, when Trump first announced his longshot bid for the presidency.

The two first met in April 2014 at a political event in New Hampshire. Six months prior to Trump’s announcement that he would run, Lewandowski was invited to Trump Tower and offered the role of campaign manager. His salary was $20,000 per month, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Lewandowski was known for his unofficial motto: “Let Trump be Trump,” which was prominently written on his office white board.

“We hit it off, and if you don’t hit it off with your campaign manager, you have a problem,” Trump told the Washington Post in 2016.

Trump fired Lewandowski in the home-stretch of the 2016 campaign, replacing him with Kellyanne Conway and Paul Manafort. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., had called the separation “amicable,” though it came amid accusations that he forcefully “grabbed” a protester and reporter in separate incidents. He was charged with battery in the incident with the reporter, though the case was eventually dropped.

“Mr. Lewandowski is absolutely innocent of this charge,” Trump said in a statement at the time.

Another video days later showed Lewandowski tussling with protestors in Tucson, Arizona at a Trump rally, apparently pulling one by the collar.

“I give him credit for having spirit,” Trump said at the time.” “He wanted them to take down those horrible, profanity-laced signs.”

Lewandowski later said he was acting out of retaliation to help Trump.

“When I see something that I think isn’t right, I think I have some kind of, for right or wrong, an obligation to fix it,” Lewandowski said. “I thought [the protesters’ disruption] was wrong.”

Even after he was cast out of Trump World before the election, Lewandowski made several appearances in the Oval Office during Trump’s presidency, and was cited in the Mueller Report as being a “devotee” of the president.

There were also reports in 2021 that Lewandowski made sexual advances toward the wife of a major Trump donor. Lewandowski attended a charity dinner at a Las Vegas hotel when Trashelle Odom, the wife of John Odom, accused him of making unwanted advances during dinner, including “repeatedly touching her, including on her leg and buttocks, and speaking to her in sexually graphic terms.”

The next year, Lewandowski was charged with misdemeanor battery related to the incident. He accepted a plea agreement and paid a $1,000 fine, served 50 hours of community service and completed eight hours of counseling.