Former President Donald Trump is adding some familiar faces to his 2024 campaign, according to reports on Thursday.
They’re familiar because they helped him win in 2016. One of them is one-time campaign manager-turned-top adviser Corey Lewandowski, CNN noted. Sources emphasized that Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles will continue to co-manage the campaign team.
Instead, Lewandowski will be brought on to help navigate the evolving political landscape now that President Joe Biden is out and Vice President Kamala Harris has become the Democratic nominee.
In a bid to strengthen Trump’s political operation, the campaign has recently added another trusted ally, Taylor Budowich, as a senior adviser. Budowich, who has led the Trump-aligned super PAC MAGA, Inc. for the past two years, brings valuable experience to the team as well.
“As we head into the home stretch of this election, we are continuing to add to our impressive campaign team,” Wiles and LaCivita said in a statement to CNN. “Corey Lewandowski, Taylor Budowich, Alex Pfeiffer, Alex Bruesewitz, and Tim Murtaugh are all veterans of prior Trump campaigns and 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 have been co-chiefs for most of the past two years, wielding significant influence to shape the campaign and the Republican Party’s strategy for Trump’s re-election. Wiles, daughter of NFL broadcast legend Pat Summerall, is a longtime Trump adviser who played a pivotal role in his 2016 victory in Florida. She later revived Ron DeSantis’s struggling gubernatorial campaign in Florida, leading him to a narrow win, CNN noted.
LaCivita joined Trump’s team in November 2022, at the start of his third campaign. A seasoned political operative, LaCivita is well-known for orchestrating the “swift boat” ads that called out John Kerry’s fabricated Vietnam War service during the 2004 presidential race.
“Along the way, the two earned praise from Republican insiders for turning Trump’s political operation – a rudderless organization full of interloppers during his first two presidential campaigns – into a more professionalized and drama-free campaign. They consolidated power, too, seizing control of the Republican National Committee, tearing up the party’s 2024 organizing plans and rewriting the GOP’s platform into a list of Trump-approved slogans,” CNN reported.
Also Thursday, conservative broadcaster and author Dan Bongino called out insiders within Trump’s campaign who he says are “sabotaging” his effort. Bongino said the plot was against Trump’s choice of JD Vance as his running mate.
Media reports that Trump is regretting picking Vance were called “absolute bullshit” on Wednesday’s Dan Bongino Show. Bongino said leaks from Trump’s side may have driven these reports. According to sources, Bongino pointed to a report in the Daily Mail that said Trump is “melting down” over Vance.
“There’s a lot of internal sabotage going on right now that I honestly did not want to highlight because I like to stay focused on the Democrats and I was hoping it would go away. It’s not,” Bongino said.
The right-leaning pundit asserted that he has spoken with numerous individuals who think that Vance’s stance on Ukraine is causing dissatisfaction among certain Republicans.
“I suspect strongly this was a leak from people who wanted another candidate for vice president,” Bongino said, pointing his finger at the “Kellyanne Conway camp.”
Conway previously served in Trump’s administration.
“Some of the other candidates were very interested in a more muscular posture in Ukraine where there was a lot of money to be made for a lot of people. JD Vance is interested in a more cautious approach to Ukraine,” Bongino argued.
Bongino called Trump and Vance a “great ticket,” but blasted those he believes are “sabotaging” it.
“Instead of just shutting up and trying to win now with this great ticket, there are people out there sabotaging the ticket right now,” he said.
In a direct address to Conway and others, Bongino simply said, “You’ve been warned.”
“I’m going to say to Kellyanne and others: it’s time to pipe down. You’ve been warned. I’ve had about enough,” he said.
WATCH:
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥Dan Bongino @dbongino with a warning to the insiders in the Trump Team who are leaking FAKE STORIES to the media…he’s looking specifically at Kellyanne Conway @KellyannePolls and her aligned people‼️
— MAGA Kitty (@SaveUSAKitty) August 14, 2024
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Get this OUT, Bongino Army‼️
Let’s GO‼️👇 pic.twitter.com/AXC2JTOmAw
