Former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, will return to help his ex-boss’ presidential re-election campaign along with four former Trump staffers, spokesperson Steven Cheung confirmed with the Daily Beast.
“As we head into the home stretch of this election, we are continuing to add to our impressive campaign team,” said Trump campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita in a statement.
Lewandowski along with Taylor Budowich, Alex Pfeiffer, Alex Bruesewitz and Tim Murtaugh, all veterans of prior Trump campaigns, will return to Trump’s 2024 team, though in what capacity was not disclosed by Cheung.
Budowich, who was under a federal probe in 2023 in relation to Trump’s classified documents case, is a former Trump spokesperson and founder of the Trump Super PAC, MAGA Inc. Budowich exited his role at the PAC earlier this week, reported Politico. Pfeiffer and Bruesewitz also exited their senior positions at MAGA Inc. Murtaugh was Trump’s 2020 communications director.
“Their unmatched experience will help President Trump prosecute the case against Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the most radical ticket in American history,” Wiles and LaCivita added in the statement.
Lewandowski has been in and out of Trump’s orbit, being dropped before the general election in 2016 after he was caught on camera allegedly assaulting reporter Michelle Fields. Then in 2020, Trump brought him back as the head of the Make America Great Again Action super PAC. Lewandowski, again, had to take a backseat when rumors broke that he had slept with Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) and made sexual advances and groped a Trump donor at an event, according to the Washington Post.
Lewandowski returns along with the other four alum after former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci claimed that Trump is “lighting” his campaign staff up “right now about picking Vance.” Scaramucci also claimed that Trump was thinking about firing campaign managers LaCivita and Wiles.
Trump himself denied the charge, stating that he was “thrilled” to have LaCivita and Wiles on his team in a call with the New York Times on Aug. 10.
Natalie Harp, a Trump aide, also reportedly lashed out at Miriam Adelson, widow of conservative business magnate Sheldon Adelson, in a string of texts accusing her super PAC, Preserve America, of being run by R.I.N.O.s (Republicans In Name Only).