After a Very Bad Month, Donald Trump Fires Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski

Donald Trump’s campaign is struggling.

While this may be fantastic news for some people, it certainly was not good news for Corey Lewandowski, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s former campaign manager. Reports have surfaced that Lewandowski was fired from the campaign today.

Lewandowski’s dismissal reflects anxiety among Trump and his supporters as they move toward the general election. The New York Times reports that the move “was intended as part of a larger shift toward the final sprint of the race,” noting that he had no political experience prior to becoming Trump’s campaign manager.

Lewandowski’s personality may also have been a factor. “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,” the Times writes, adding that there were also rumors of conflict between Lewandowski and Paul Manafort, Trump’s chief strategist.

Lewandowski’s firing is part of a larger shift occurring within the Trump campaign, which is reeling from a month of terrible numbers. The Washington Post reports:

Not only are Trump’s poll numbers slipping, they are at a low that no one, Republican or Democrat, has seen in the past three election cycles. Looking at the window of time between 200 and 100 days before each of those elections, you can see that Trump has consistently polled worse than George W. Bush in 2004, John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. He caught up briefly after clinching the GOP nomination—and then sank again.

The Post adds that Trump “essentially has no campaign at this point,” and is relying on Republican Party staff to pick up some of the slack.

To make matters worse, he may be running out of money. Over the weekend, he requested “emergency” funds of $100,000 from his donors—and his top supporters are less than pleased. CNN writes:

[I]nterviews with more than a dozen donors, party, campaign and congressional officials make clear the concerns have moved beyond bruised feelings over personal slights—and even beyond the top donors who simply won’t give to the New York billionaire.

“This isn’t a triage-type of situation,” said one GOP donor who backed Jeb Bush during the primary, but is planning to give to Trump. “This is a massive, full body surgery type deal and we just don’t have much time for that.”

Considering Lewandowski’s history of letting Trump say and do whatever he pleased, it may be unsurprising that Trump has let him go in attempts to become serious competition against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

No word on whether Trump himself used his classic catchphrase to let Lewandowski go.

—Posted by Emma Niles

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