One of Trump’s most controversial campaign managers is back but never really left

Corey Lewandowski says that when it comes to this summer’s Republican National Convention, former President Trump is the boss.

‘Donald Trump is the final decision-maker for everything that happens at the convention,’ Lewandowski said in an interview with Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

Trump’s 2016 campaign manager and longtime friend and outside adviser to the former president spoke the day after the Trump campaign confirmed that they had brought Lewandowski on to advise the campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) on the GOP’s 2024 delegate and convention process.

‘He’s very helpful to me, and he’s helpful to the RNC, and he’s helpful to the president,’ Trump 2024 campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita told Fox News.

The news was first reported by the National Review and by Politico, which noticed that the RNC, in a filing with the Federal Election Commission, made an April 24 payment to Lewandowski’s firm for ‘management consulting.’

The move marks a formal return by Lewandowski to Trump’s campaign structure.

Lewandowski managed Trump’s first presidential campaign from before its inception in 2015 through the 2016 primaries. He was fired from his job in June of that year but remained close to the then-GOP presidential nominee. Lewandowski, a New Hampshire resident, led his state’s delegation to that summer’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

After Trump took over in the White House, Lewandowski became a top outside adviser to the then-president and played an influential advisory role in Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign. And in early 2021, Trump named Lewandowski to set up and steer his first post-presidency super PAC.

‘I have been very blessed for the last decade to have had an incredible relationship with a candidate, a president, and a post-president. That has never wavered or changed,’ he said.

Lewandowski also spotlighted his ‘great relationship with Susie Wiles,’ who, along with LaCivita, steers the Trump campaign. ‘I don’t think anybody can call into question the success of the 2024 campaign.’

But Lewandowski’s been no stranger to controversy.

Among them, he was removed from running the super PAC and Trump severed ties with his longstanding adviser and aide in the autumn of 2021 after Lewandowski was accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward a top Trump donor’s wife during a Las Vegas charity dinner. Lewandowski was later charged with a misdemeanor, but the charges were dismissed after completing impulse control counseling, community service and paying a fine in a deal struck with prosecutors.

Asked if his past controversies could be a distraction going forward as he advises the Trump campaign and the RNC, Lewandowski said, ‘I have been a person who has always given my best and honest advice to the campaign and the candidate, and I think there is value in that.’