Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is parting ways with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski about a month before the GOP convention in Cleveland, the campaign announced Monday.
“The Donald J. Trump Campaign for President, which has set a historic record in the Republican Primary having received almost 14 million votes, has today announced that Corey Lewandowski will no longer be working with the campaign,” campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in a statement to the New York Times. “The campaign is grateful to Corey for his hard work and dedication and we wish him the best in the future.” The major shakeup comes amid a crucial stretch for Mr. Trump’s campaign as he seeks to reassure wary Republicans and donors that he has an organization built to take on likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the fall election.
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“The tone of the campaign is going to change, but I would be surprised [if] Mr. Trump suddenly is somebody different,” Mr. Bennett said on Fox Business Network. “He’s not going to be. That’s who he is.”
Michael Caputo, an adviser to the Trump campaign, tweeted a link to part of the Wizard of Oz song “Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead” as the news was breaking Monday.
Mr. Trump had defended Mr. Lewandowski after a March incident in which a reporter had accused him of manhandling her following a press conference in Florida. A Florida prosecutor ultimately declined to pursue a misdemeanor charge of simple battery against Mr. Lewandowski.
But the shakeup, coming only about a month before Republicans gather in Cleveland to officially select Mr. Trump as the party’s nominee, is a clear signal that the billionaire businessman feels he needs to change up the campaign’s organization quickly.