Let Trump Be Trump

by Corey R. Lewandowski

  Finally, the boss got down to it. “I’m not happy with my staff,” he said.

  “Well, sir, that’s why we’re here,” Corey answered.

  “I’m doing a great job, but my staff sucks.”

  It had been a rainy morning in Windham, New Hampshire, where Corey lives with his wife, Alison, and their four children. He had watched his daughter Abigail’s Girl Scout troop march in a Memorial Day parade, which took place inside a local gymnasium. On the campaign trail, he once went seventy-three days straight without going home. He loved seeing his kids every day and made a promise to himself that he would try not to miss any more of their childhoods. It was a promise that would be hard to keep. After the parade, he drove to Logan Airport in Boston and caught a flight to Washington, DC.

  Dave also had plans with Susan and the kids to visit Dave’s parents for the holiday. Instead, he drove about forty-five minutes into the city from his home in Maryland. When the boss wants to see you, you drop everything and go.

  We met at Peet’s Coffee at Seventeenth and Pennsylvania. Corey threw his bag into the back seat of Dave’s Chevy Suburban, and we walked over to the White House together.

  In the West Wing, we met first with Steve Bannon, the chief White House strategist, and Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff. In his office, Reince and Steve told us what our meeting with the president would be all about. We had a pretty good idea why President Trump wanted to see us. We had met with him together many times since the inaugural and separately on a few other occasions. We knew he relied on us to carry his message on television. We also knew that he trusted us. Multiple times during his trip abroad, and even during the plane ride home, the boss talked about bringing us in to restore order to the West Wing. He wanted to put together the team that had won him the white house.

  Reince and Bannon told us that the president wanted Dave to be deputy chief of staff, with broad authority over a vast portfolio. He would report only to Priebus and the president. Corey, per their plans, was going to oversee political operations, presidential appointments, and the RNC, as well as the campaign’s handling of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. He would be at the same level as Jared, a senior adviser.

  “It’s all buttoned-up,” Reince said. “A done deal.”

  It was an incredible opportunity. Like a kid in Little League who dreams of playing in the World Series, just about everyone who goes into politics imagines himself or herself working in the White House someday.

  Still, here’s the thing we know about our president: from his first official day in politics, which at this writing is still only a little more than two years ago, people have tried to make him into something he’s not. Donald Trump is not, nor will he ever be, a part of the establishment. He’s not, nor will he ever be, a politician in the traditional sense of that word. And he is not someone who goes back on his word.

  For Donald Trump, loyalty is the currency of the realm, and nothing hurts him deeper than when someone he trusts is disloyal.

  Back in the Oval Office, Dave told the steward to make sure his Coke was a regular. As Donald Trump’s deputy campaign manager, Dave was served a dozen Diet Cokes since their first meeting in 2010, which he doesn’t drink, because the boss had ordered them for him. When the steward handed us the Cokes, we realized there was no place to set the glasses down. We weren’t going to put them on the Resolute desk, which was a present from Queen Victoria and had first appeared in the Oval Office when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. And we were not about to put the glasses on Ronald Reagan’s rug, which President Trump brought back to the Oval when the staff asked him for his furniture preferences in January. So we sat there holding the Cokes in our laps like schoolboys holding flowers.

  Even when you don’t have a beverage sweating onto your pants, sitting in the Oval Office with the leader of the free world is intimidating. It can make you feel overwhelmed. The view through the window alone, of the famous rose garden in full bloom, is enough to stop even powerful men in their tracks. For us, however, that feeling disappeared quickly, and it was as though no time had passed.

  The three of us, and the rest of the core campaign staff, had forged the closest of relationships. And, as a candidate, the president thrived in that chummy, devoted atmosphere. It’s the reason that he wanted to spend so much time among the folks when the rallies were over, why he insisted on visiting the smallest corners of every battleground state while Hillary was giving speeches to bankers and vacationing in the Hamptons.

  Corey told the president that we had seen Priebus and Bannon and that they had told us about the new roles—Corey as a senior adviser, Dave as Deputy Chief of Staff—that Trump supposedly had in store for us.

  “Yeah,” the president said. “I don’t like that idea.”

  We looked at each other.

  While working on Donald Trump’s campaign, there were more What the fuck just happened? moments than we can count. And now another one had just happened.

  The president leveled Dave with a stare.

  “Who’s the leak?” he asked.

  The two of us exchanged nervous glances.

  “I don’t know, sir,” Dave said. “I don’t work here so I don’t know, but I assume there’s an internal…”

  He didn’t wait for Dave to finish. “Corey, who’s the leak?” he said.

  “Mr. President,” Corey said. “It’s probably some low-level communications person trying to gain access and power.”

  The president looked at Corey with his head tilted slightly, another patented expression. This one’s the don’t-bullshit-me look.

  “I know,” the president said. “I think I know. I know. I know who the leak is.” The president then said to the two of us, “I don’t want either of you in here now, because if this place isn’t working better in the next four to five weeks, I’m firing everyone. Reince can go to Greece.”

  In that moment we realized that the rumor we had heard about Reince becoming the ambassador to Greece came from the West Wing.

  Corey took the opportunity to tell the President about Tiger Woods, who had been arrested the night before for driving under the influence. He showed the president Wood’s mug shot on his phone.

  “It was the back surgery,” the president said. “I knew he shouldn’t have had it.” He explained how easy it is for people to get addicted to painkillers after surgery, which is what he believed had happened to Woods. “He’s a nice guy, and was on top of the world,” the president said, shaking his head as he looked at the mug shot again.

  Just then, the chief of staff walked into the Oval Office.

  With the Resolute Desk blocking the president’s view, Dave tried tapping Reince on the knee to get his attention. Priebus didn’t get the hint.

  “So, Mr. President, we’re all set. Corey is going to come in and run the Russia investigation, and Dave is going to be deputy chief of staff.”

  President Trump leaned back in his chair. “Reince, we’re all friends here,” he began. “But if this place isn’t working better in the next four weeks, I’m going to make some changes around here and the first change is you.”

  “But I thought we had a plan,” the chief of staff said.

  At that moment, Hope and Kellyanne walked into the Oval and the meeting was over.

  We walked back to the chief of staff’s office, where Bannon was waiting. The four of us reviewed the meeting and we informed Steve that the president had named him as one of the suspected leakers. We also told them to quickly get the building buttoned up or Reince will be enjoying Greece soon.

  “Fuck,” Bannon said. “I thought you two were my ticket out.”

  “Wait, what?” Dave said. “You were going to leave just as we came in to help you?”

  “Good plan, right?” Bannon said. “I was punching out. I’ve gotta get out of here.”

  After our surreal meeting in the Oval, we walked out the front gate of the White House, past the media tents and back to Peet’s, where we climbed
into Dave’s truck. Corey had booked a room in a nearby Marriott. By the time we pulled in front of the hotel, our visit to the West Wing was already taking a viral spin around the twitterverse. A CNN producer had spied us walking from the West Wing of the White House and sent out a tweet. We were “in suits,” the tweet emphasized, the inference being that we had come dressed to meet with the president.

  In the hotel, we took the elevator up to the concierge level, where they offered a nice antipasto bar for guests. Dave was on the phone with his wife when Reince called him. By the time he clicked off with Susan, the White House chief of staff had already hung up and was ringing Corey. Dave told Corey not to answer his phone when he saw it was Reince. Corey answered anyway. He then watched as Corey listened and started shaking his head.

  “He just talked to the boss, he wants us back in,” Corey mouthed.

  The best explanation we could come up with was that Hope Hicks and Kellyanne, who had come into the Oval just as the president brought the meeting to a close, had talked him back into bringing us on board again. We were still parsing the likelihood of that scenario when Kellyanne Conway, followed by her Secret Service detail as well as by a few admirers and onlookers, walked into the lounge. She had called Corey while we were on our way to the hotel and asked where we were headed and said she wanted to meet us for a drink.

  We pushed a couple of tables together. For a moment, it was like being on the campaign trail again. The hotel was full for the holiday weekend and the lounge started to get busy. Since his time as the campaign manager, and afterward working for CNN, Corey had raised his profile quite a bit. People recognized him all the time. Dave, too, had done a lot of TV for Fox and other channels. But compared with Kellyanne, we were B-list for sure. In between people asking her to pose for selfies, she was putting the full-court press on us to come back and join the team in the White House. Flattering as it was, we couldn’t take it for long. Trump had said no, and that was enough for us.

  “We heard what the president wants with our own ears,” Dave told her.

  “Well, if you’re not coming back, then stay out of the building,” she said.

  The sun was already starting to set when Dave pulled out of the hotel parking lot in his Chevy Suburban. Susan had told him that she and the kids would wait for him for dinner. Hot dogs and hamburgers, the perfect Memorial Day meal, was on the menu. He let out a deep breath. He couldn’t wait to fire up the grill. A job in the White House would have meant twenty-hour days and seven-day weeks. He would have taken the position had the president asked. But on Sixteenth Street heading home, he was glad that he hadn’t.

  After another drink with Kellyanne, Corey, too, called it a night and headed up to his room. We were fine with whatever role the president wanted us to play. In Donald Trump’s army, there were no more loyal soldiers.

  We couldn’t stay out of the way; the president wouldn’t let us. Kellyanne knew that as well as we did. In the coming months, we would watch as the fundamental flaw in the Trump White House made it shake and crumble, until the whole thing split in two with the American people watching. First out of the White House was General Mike Flynn, followed by Katie Walsh and shortly thereafter Sean Spicer. They were followed closely by Reince Priebus. Sebastian Gorka has left, George Sifakis, is out and even our close friend Keith Schiller has left government service.

  We watched Anthony Scaramucci flame out. We were in Steve’s apartment when Mooch’s first tweet hit the fan.

  Bannon read it, then looked up from his cell phone. “Is he drinking?” he asked.

  We didn’t know.

  And now Bannon, too, is gone. He walked out of the door to the West Wing with a plan to support the agenda that Trump won on and to pay back all those who opposed him.

  Sometimes we think maybe it’s better that we stayed on the outside.

  And sometimes we think the boss is just waiting for the right time to bring us back.

  Whatever happens, things are good for us. Corey opened a strategic consulting business that takes him all over the world. Dave still runs Citizens United and is a top political contributor to Fox News and, as usual, has a thousand irons in the fire.

  Both of us are still loyal advocates for the president and staunch supporters of his Make America Great Again agenda, and we promote both as much as we can in the media and other circles. Plus, we got to write this book.

  But Dave, for one, sometimes thinks about life after politics. He has a hunting camp in Marengo County, Alabama. Susan grew up in Marengo, and much of her family still lives in Alabama. In the lower western part of the state, the county is in what is known as the Black Belt, a swath of Alabama so rich with vertisol that the topsoil is as black as coal. It is also historically dirt poor. Marengo does, however, have some of the best deer hunting in the state, and Dave and his son Griffin often take advantage. Now, he’s not going south just yet. But he’d be lying if he told you that direction is not in the back of his mind.

  Not Corey. He still goes a hundred miles an hour and tries to get to the gym often, and there’s no stopping in sight. He and Dave both have offices on Pennsylvania Avenue, and he splits his time between the capital during the week and home on weekends. He tries to not miss too many of the parades his kids march in.

  It’s doubtful, though, he’ll run another campaign. Not too long ago, someone asked him if he would.

  “I was Donald Trump’s campaign manager,” he said. “How would anyone ever top that?”

  I am asking all citizens to embrace this renewal of the American spirit. I am asking all members of Congress to join me in dreaming big, and bold, and daring things for our country. I am asking everyone watching tonight to seize this moment. Believe in yourselves, believe in your future, and believe, once more, in America.

  —DONALD J. TRUMP, SPEECH TO THE JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS, FEBRUARY 28, 2017

  (left to right) Jan 24, 2015. Corey, Dave, Donald Trump at Iowa Freedom Summit hosted by Citizens United and Congressman Steve King.

  (left to right) Capt. John Duncan, Stephen Miller, Michael Glassner, Eli Miller, Ben Miller, Corey, Steven Mnuchin, Donald Trump, Keith Schiller, Dan Scavino, George Gigicos, Hope Hicks on Trump Force One.

  Donald Trump with local law enforcement in front of Trump Force One.

  Corey after Donald Trump kicked him off the plane with instructions: “Go win Iowa for me.”

  (left to right) Steve Bannon, Dave, Reince Priebus, Donald Trump, Hope Hicks, Dan Scavino and Stephen Miller at Mar-a-Lago the night of Electoral College victory certification.

  (left to right) Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump with New York City Firefighters on anniversary of 9/11.

  (left to right) Hope Hicks, Stephen Miller, Michael Glassner, Corey, George Gigicos and Dan Scavino near Trump residence in Beverly Hills the day Donald Trump reached the delegate count to become the presumptive GOP nominee for president.

  Rally crowd in Dallas, American Airlines Center. Sept. 14, 2015.

  (left to right) Donald Trump Jr., Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Bob Dole, Governor, Mike Pence at Republican National Convention.

  Griffin Bossie and Don King at Republican National Convention.

  (left to right) Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Jeff Sessions, Hope Hicks, George Gigicos, John McEntee (standing) and Corey backstage at the presidential debate held at Washington University in St. Louis, Oct. 9, 2016.

  (left to right Gov. Scott Walker, Sen. Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Gov. Jeb Bush, Gov. John Kasich, Dr. Ben Carson, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee (center, facing away) and Gov. Chris Christie (center) in elevator before first primary debate in Cleveland.

  Guests of President Trump, Corey, Dave, and their families at the Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of White House. April 17, 2017.

  Donald and Melania Trump voting on Election Day at public school in Manhattan.

  (left to right) John McEntee (standing) Bill Stepien (seated), Jeff DeWit (standing), Stephen Miller (seated), Hope Hicks, Sean Spicer,
Eric Trump, Dave, Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner and Brian Jack on election night in Trump Tower.

  (left to right) Jason Miller, Steve Bannon, Dave, Jared Kushner, Eric Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Miller, Donald Trump Jr., Hope Hicks, Brad Parscale, Reince Priebus on election night right after Donald J. Trump is elected president.

  (left to right) Corey, Jeff DeWit, Dave at the Inaugural.

  Corey and President Donald J. Trump in Oval Office.

  Dave and President Donald J. Trump in Oval Office.

  (left to right) Corey, George Gigicos, Dave in front of Air Force One.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  WE ARE THANKFUL that so many talented and dedicated people worked hard to help elect Donald J. Trump as the forty-fifth president of the United States. We are grateful to the many people who sacrificed and supported us every step of the way. There is no way that this list could ever be completed without missing a few people, so please know as you read this that there are countless other people, from volunteers to state chairmen to elected officials to friends of the Trump family, who proved to be true patriots.

  A special thanks goes out to the staff at all the Trump properties, who were so kind to us on so many visits.

  To the incredible men and women of the United States Secret Service, specifically Mark Halberstadt and Scott Christensen, our detail leaders. We are grateful to your unwavering commitment to protecting Team Trump.