June 20, 2016

Trump Dumps Campaign Manager—Twitter Delights

Corey Lewandowski is getting zero sypmathy.

Al Drago/AP

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Donald Trump fired his longtime campaign manager Corey Lewandowski this morning, and political Twitter had very little sympathy for the ousted operative. Lewandowski, who is known to be abrasive and to have contentious relations with the media, has long been a controversial presence on Trump’s campaign. His manhandling of reporter Michelle Fields during a campaign event in March drew an outcry and calls for his firing. More recently, he has feuded with campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was brought in to professionalize the Trump operation. He appears to have lost his battle for supremacy against Manafort and his firing was announced at prime time (10 a.m. Monday morning) for the chattering classes to notice.

A member of Trump’s own staff jumped in to celebrate. Here’s the campaign’s senior adviser and head of Trump’s New York operation:

Also reveling in the news was Michelle Fields, who wound up getting fired from Breitbart News over the incident, when she protested the conservative outlet seeming to take Lewandowski’s side.

Rick Wilson, a top GOP consultant who has long been a top Trump critic couldn’t resist either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But it wasn’t all celebration. Fellow GOP operatives took to Twitter to point out just how ill-timed the move was, and how Lewandowski’s firing might be anything but calming for the Trump campaign. Ryan Williams, a former spokesman for Mitt Romney, pointed out that Trump still needs Lewandowski’s support, at least for another month.

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And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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