Senior Writer Jonathan Last comments on Donald Trump’s treatment of his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski once the going got tough in the latest edition of THE WEEKLY STANDARD Newsletter.
Last recalls when Trump stuck by Lewandowski in the wake of the Michelle Fields scandal, but began to slot him in the background of his campaign after enduring an electoral rough patch.
His observations are reprinted below — but why not get them delivered straight to your inbox, instead? Just go to weeklystandard.com and enter your email address on the right side of the page.
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Before Paul Manafort had him airbrushed out of history, Corey Lewandowski thought he was going to be chief of staff for President Trump. Now, he’s fighting an internal war to have some say in his own campaign and he’d be lucky to land a gig as Director of Pants and Picnics at the Department of Agriculture in a Trump administration. I know what you’re thinking: Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Fair enough. But there’s something instructive about how Lewandowski has been tossed aside by Trump.
You’ll recall what happened in the aftermath of Lewandowski (allegedly?) grabbing reporter Michelle Fields. Ben Howe summarized the goal-post moving nicely:
Hystérique, non? I’m glad we can all laugh about it now. But forgotten is the moment in the Lewandowski-Fields affair where Trump stood by his guy out of a bedrock sense of loyalty. Here’s Trump standing up for Lewandowski:
So Donald Trump wouldn’t get rid of Lewandowski for moral reasons-because a man shouldn’t act the way Lewandowski acted. And, by total coincidence, at that time things were going great for Trump.
But suddenly Trump goes a month without winning a primary and he’s getting skunked in delegate selection from sea to shining sea and Lewandowski is stripped of his duties and put into the Trump campaign’s version of a witness protection program, where he’s reduced to sending out passive-aggressive tweets about Manafort.
Because when the question is morality, or character, or right vs. wrong, Trump is all about loyalty and constancy and his word is stronger than oak. But when the question is about what’s best for Trump? Get on the plane and go home, Corey. It’s over there.
Trump supporters may not realize it, but they are Lewandowski writ large.
Lewandowski wasn’t the best political mind in the country, but he was the only one willing to throw in with Trump early on. And once he outlived his usefulness, he was pushed aside.
In the same way, Trump’s voters weren’t the ideal group for a Republican primary, because many of them weren’t even Republicans and an even bigger number of them aren’t conservatives. But they, too, were the only people willing to throw in with him. So he took their support and promised them a wall and anti-PC toughness and so much #winning they’d get sick of it.
The minute those folks are inconvenient for Trump, they’ll be cast aside, too. You’ll get your wall the day after Corey Lewandowski is sworn in as chief of staff. Because for Donald Trump, loyalty is a one-way street-and even then, it’s always conditional.
