Donald Trump just can’t quit Corey Lewandowski.
The pugnacious political operative fell out of favor with the former president’s camp last year, when a prominent GOP donor accused him of “stalking” her at a charity event and making profane and drunken sexual advances, including unwanted touching.
“He will no longer be associated with Trump World,” said a Trump spokesman at the time, who confirmed that Lewandowski had been removed as chair of the Make America Great Again Action super PAC.
Lewandowski’s September exile was just the latest vicissitude in a topsy-turvy relationship with the twice-impeached former president. Lewandowski was fired as Trump’s campaign manager in June 2016, months after video emerged showing that he manhandled a female reporter (although he was reportedly axed because Melania Trump loathed him and he lost an internal power struggle to Paul Manafort, who would also be jettisoned from the campaign’s top role).
Eventually, Lewandowski was welcomed back to the Trump administration as an informal advisor.
And now, he’s back again.
On Wednesday, Lewandowski told Howie Carr, a conservative radio host, that he visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound “a couple of weeks ago” and that he spoken with Trump earlier this week.
“It hasn’t been reported, Howie, because I’m not the guy who runs to the media every time I have a conversation with Donald Trump,” Lewandowski explained as he told a member of the media about his most recent conversation with Donald Trump.
Lewandowski, a longtime New Hampshire politico, added that Trump gave him two special missions: “get rid of Chris Sununu as the governor of New Hampshire” and make “sure we’ve got a great candidate in U.S. Senate race who can beat Maggie Hassan.”
Trump’s motivation to unseat Hassan is obvious; his desire to replace Sununu is self-reverential: she’s a Democrat up for re-election in 2022 and he’s a Republican who has refused to dabble in election conspiracy theories or minimize the January 6th riot.
Lewandowski ripped Sununu for saying on CNN this weekend that he didn’t want to campaign with Donald Trump.
The New Hampshire Journal provides key context on the GOP governor:
His critiques of Trump, as well as Republicans in the U.S. Senate, have led some to suggest Sununu is eyeing a campaign for president in 2024 in the “John Kasich/John McCain” political lane. Asked about his emergence as the “Republican who doesn’t like Republicans,” Sununu told NHJournal Wednesday:
“Do not compare me to John Kasich. John Kasich is an angry guy who goes out of his way to bash the party. That’s crazy. I expressed frustration, but I didn’t call anyone out by name. Most Americans have had it with both parties of Congress. Democrats stonewalling for four years against Trump, Republicans stonewalling this time in. I’m sharing what every American thinks. So this isn’t about bashing.”
