Donald Trump fires his campaign manager. Will it make any difference?
Donald Trump on Monday fired embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Will this help placate top GOP lawmakers and donors worried about the direction of the Trump campaign?聽
Maybe, just a bit. Mr. Lewandowski is famously combative and had poor relations with many Republican National Committee staff. His motto always seemed to be 鈥淟et Trump Be Trump.鈥� Now that he鈥檚 gone, nervous Republicans might sigh and hope Mr. Trump finally pivots to a more restrained general election persona.
But that hope might also be misplaced. As we鈥檝e noted, so far the Trump campaign is being run like a giant political science experiment. Can a presidential campaign win while spending zero dollars on early ads in battleground states? Can it succeed with a staff the size of the Clinton campaign鈥檚 accounting department?
Lewandowski has been with Trump since the beginning, but it鈥檚 highly unlikely he鈥檚 responsible for the campaign鈥檚 entire design. That鈥檚 a Trump-level decision. Trump for President looks a lot like Trump businesses, in fact: lean, dependent on the principal鈥檚 media prowess, and prone to outsourcing.
That would means it鈥檚 Trump that鈥檚 responsible for his current state of affairs, not his staff. He can鈥檛 fire himself, though. Either Lewandowski or chief strategist Paul Manafort, an experienced GOP hand, had to go.
鈥淟ewandowski effort suggests Trump realizes campaign has imploded. Question is whether Manafort can quickly rebuild, esp before convention,鈥� NBC political reporter Benjy Sarlin after the news broke.
In the wake of his dismissal, Lewandowski expressed surprise and said he had good relations with Manafort, Trump鈥檚 family, and Trump himself. Other reports, however, suggested that it was the family, and specifically Trump鈥檚 daughter Ivanka, who鈥檇 insisted that the former New Hampshire state police officer needed to go. Allegedly Lewandowski had tried to plant stories in the media critical of Ivanka鈥檚 husband, Jared Kushner, who鈥檚 developed into a key Trump adviser.
If that鈥檚 true, Lewandowski would not be the first political employee to learn that it is a very bad idea to mess with a candidate鈥檚 immediate family. During the years of Ronald Reagan鈥檚 presidency numerous administration officials thought they could get around Nancy Reagan鈥檚 objections for some policy or other, if necessary. They were wrong. Once, Chief of Staff Don Regan hung up on Mrs. Reagan out of frustration. He was fired shortly thereafter.
