Political consultant Corey Lewandowski is interviewed by media at the Fiserv Forum as preparations are underway for the Republican National Convention on July 14, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
CNN —
Former President Donald Trump is expected to add staff to his campaign imminently, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN, including the addition of his first 2016 campaign manager and staunch ally, Corey Lewandowski. It was not immediately clear what Lewandowski’s role would be.
Sources stressed the campaign team, co-managed by Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, would not be replaced, but that Lewandowski would be brought on to help navigate the changed political landscape.
Still, the additions to his organization are the clearest sign yet that Trump has grown increasingly uncomfortable with his new reality and a race irrevocably changed by the installation of Vice President Kamala Harris atop the Democratic ticket.
In another move to shore up Trump’s political operation, the campaign recently brought on another longtime ally, Taylor Budowich, as a senior adviser to the campaign. Budowich has been the head of the Trump-aligned super PAC MAGA, Inc. for the last two years.
“As we head into the home stretch of this election, we are continuing to add to our impressive campaign team,” Wiles and LaCivita said in a statement to CNN. “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.”
The hiring comes after a change at the top of the Democratic ticket has brought a burst of enthusiasm and a boost in the polls for Trump’s new rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump’s campaign has downplayed Harris’ significance, arguing that despite the change in the dynamics of the race, the “fundamentals” of the campaign have remained the same.
But allies of the former president have grown increasingly agitated in recent weeks, as they’ve watched Trump unleash a torrent of mean-spirited missives, race-baiting insults and conspiratorial broadsides that even they acknowledge have been unproductive. Some have privately expressed serious concern that Trump’s recent inability to stay on message has wasted an early opportunity to blunt the momentum of his new opponent.
Privately, they’ve complained about the state of the campaign – arguing that things need to change.
Ultimately, Trump is the candidate, and whether the message of discipline many Republicans believe is necessary to win November, namely stay on message, remains to be seen.
Lewandowski, though, brings a familiar face back into Trump’s immediate circle.He served as Trump’s campaign manager from June of 2015 until he was fired a year later, amid a series of negative stories, and replaced with Paul Manafort.
Lewandowski’s return to Trump world comes after Make America Great Again Actionsevered ties with Lewandowski in 2021 following reports that a donor accused him of making unwanted sexual advances toward her. Lewandowski latermade a dealwith prosecutors to avoid a misdemeanor charge stemming from the alleged sexual harassment.
His insertion at this stage of the campaign ends a period of relative stability within the upper ranks of the former president’s political operation. Wiles and LaCivita have served as co-chiefs for most of the past two years, amassing significant clout with nearly unfettered power to shape the campaign – and the Republican Party’s political operation – toward their vision for getting Trump elected.
Wiles, the daughter of NFL broadcast legend Pat Summerall, is one of Trump’s longest-serving advisers. She became the architect of his 2016 victory in Florida, where she had worked as a political operative for decades. Two years later, she took over the flailing gubernatorial campaign of Trump’s handpicked candidate in Florida, Ron DeSantis, and steered him to a razor-thin win.
However, a public falling-out with DeSantis in 2019 resulted in a brief exodus from Trump’s orbit as well. Trump later enlisted her expertise to right his reelection effort in Florida, where he was victorious again in 2020 despite losing the election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Wiles remained close to Trump as he drifted through his post-presidency, eventually finding herself as the de facto leader of his political operation while he laid the groundwork for a comeback. By mid-2022, it became clear that the former president’s attempts to regain power would run into an ascending DeSantis, and Trump and Wiles bonded over the opportunity to squash the political aspirations of their one-time ally. It was Wiles who stocked Trump’s political operation with other Florida operatives spurned by DeSantis in what was jokingly referred to internally as the “2024 revenge tour.”
LaCivita entered the fold as Trump launched his third campaign in November 2022. A longtime political operative, LaCivita was best known as the mastermind behind the negative “swift boat” ads that challenged 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s Vietnam War service.
Together, Wiles and LaCivita navigated Trump’s campaign through a Republican primary with relative ease, defeating a diverse field of candidates who failed to coalesce anti-Trump forces in the GOP or convince a majority of Republican voters to move on from the former president. As Trump’s mounting legal troubles threatened to derail his third White House bid, Wiles and LaCivita turned the felony indictments into a fundraising cash cow while galvanizing the GOP base around the former president.
Along the way, the two earned praise from Republican insiders for turning Trump’s political operation – a rudderless organization full of interloppers during his first two presidential campaigns – into a more professionalized and drama-free campaign. They consolidated power, too, seizing control of the Republican National Committee, tearing up the party’s 2024 organizing plans and rewriting the GOP’s platform into a list of Trump-approved slogans.
They became the subject of lengthy news profiles, where they were described as the Trump tamers who managed to keep their candidate in line, unlike any previous advisers. After following LaCivita and Wiles around for months, journalist Tim Alberta described them in the Atlantic as “two of America’s most feared political operatives” who had managed to turn Trump’s chaotic political operation into a shrewd, well-funded machine and who believed a blowout electoral college victory was within grasp.
Signs of discord emerged in recent weeks, though, as Trump struggled to recover from the whiplash induced by an unprecedented stretch in the campaign. The assassination attempt on Trump that united the GOP was followed by an abrupt change of opponent that has divided Republicans over how best to respond to their changing political fortunes.
As the public and private angst has intensified, Wiles and LaCivita have become targets of far-right supporters of Trump. LaCivita especially has faced vitriol from the fringes of Trump’s movement, who have resurfaced past remarks critical of the former president. Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who controversially dined with Trump in 2022, has called for LaCivita’s ouster through his organization, America First Foundation.
“Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, under the direction of senior advisor Chris LaCivita, is now on a path for defeat this November,” an anti-LaCivita website published by the group says. “Let the Trump Campaign know that it’s time to #FireLaCivita.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
