Former US president Donald Trump has re-hired key members of his 2016 campaign team, hunkered down for debate prep with ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, and tapped his sons and major donors to lead his official transition team, as polls show the Republican neck and neck with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Corey Lewandowski, who managed Trump’s successful 2016 campaign, will return to help the Republican retake the White House this November, campaign co-managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement on Thursday. Lewandowski will be joined by Taylor Budowich, Alex Pfeiffer, Alex Bruesewitz, and Tim Murtaugh, who were described by Wiles and LaCivita as “veterans of prior Trump campaigns”
Lewandowski was fired by the Trump campaign shortly before the 2016 election, after he allegedly groped a female reporter. Brought back four years later to lead a pro-Trump fundraising committee, he was fired again in 2021 over separate allegations of sexual misconduct.
Wiles and LaCivita did not say what precise roles Lewandowski and the four staffers will play in this year’s campaign, but Trump told reporters on Thursday that Lewandowski will be a “personal envoy or he’ll be at some level.”
Trump and Harris are currently even in most polls, with Harris holding a lead of less than 1% over the former president, according to data compiled by RealClearPolitics. Amid rumors that Trump blames his campaign staff for the erosion of his four-point lead over President Joe Biden, he has enlisted the help of ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard ahead of his upcoming debate with Harris, the New York Times reported on Friday.
Gabbard, a former US Representative and vocal opponent of the Democratic Party’s interventionist foreign policy, was credited with ending Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign with a single debate performance. In the 2019 showdown, Gabbard eviscerated Harris’ record as California’s attorney general, slamming her for jailing thousands of marijuana offenders “and then laughing about it,” for her use of prison labor, and for blocking evidence that would have freed innocent men on death row.
“There is no excuse for that and the people who suffered under your reign as prosecutor, you owe them an apology,” Gabbard said, leaving Harris unable to respond.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the former president met with Gabbard, claiming that he “does not need traditional debate prep but will continue to meet with respected policy advisors and effective communicators like Tulsi Gabbard, who successfully dominated Kamala Harris on the debate stage.”
Should Trump triumph over Harris in November, his transition team will be led by Linda McMahon, who headed the Small Business Administration during his first term, and by businessman Howard Lutnick, he said in a statement on Friday. McMahon and Lutnick are both major donors to Trump’s campaign, and they will be joined on the transition team by running mate J.D. Vance and Trump’s two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric.
Transition teams help presidential election winners staff their administrations, and are typically named several months before election day.