Trump dumps campaign manager

Donald Trump fired his embattled campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, on Monday, effectively ending a damaging power struggle within his campaign that had worried Republicans — and even some Trump family members.

Trump cut ties with Lewandowski following a series of meetings between the campaign’s top hands and reportedly after Trump’s daughter Ivanka personally raised issues about the campaign manager with her father.

{mosads}Lewandowski had jostled for influence with campaign chairman Paul Manafort, whose arrival to the Trump universe provoked immediate stories about tensions between the two.

The firing leaves Manafort clearly in charge of the campaign as Trump seeks to regain momentum.

Barry Bennett, a senior Trump adviser, told Fox News moments after the news broke that “Paul [Manafort] is totally in charge” of the campaign now that Lewandowski is gone.

He added that while he doesn’t believe the firing will lead to wholesale changes, he believes the campaign will now focus more on issues important to everyday Americans.

Lewandowski was gracious in his first interview after the departure with NBC News. 

“I don’t know if it’s so much of a surprise. I just want to say how honored I’ve been to be a part of this team,” he said. “I will support Donald Trump in any endeavor he has. If I can play a role in this campaign, either formal or informal, that would be an honor.”

Lewandowski was at Trump’s side as he rocketed through the GOP primaries, and Trump stood by him when he was charged with simple battery for grabbing a female reporter’s arm.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee is suffering a rocky stretch, however, and questions about his campaign strategy and infighting among staffers contributed to Lewandowski’s downfall.

Trump’s staff was officially told about Lewandowski in a conference call Monday around 11:30 a.m., according to a campaign source.

One top aide, Michael Caputo, tweeted “ding dong the witch is dead” minutes after the news broke, likening Lewandowski’s ouster to the death of the Wicked Witch of the East in “The Wizard of Oz.”

CNN reported that Trump’s daughter Ivanka played an outsize role in Lewandowski’s firing. A source told the network that the former campaign manager sparred with Ivanka’s husband, Jared Kushner, and she heard rumors that Lewandowski had tried to pitch damaging stories to the press about her husband. 

Lewandowski swatted aside those accusations during an interview on CNN Monday afternoon, lauding his relationship with Trump’s family, as well as Ivanka and Kushner specifically. 

In a statement announcing the change, Trump’s campaign expressed its appreciation for Lewandowski’s work.

“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,” Trump 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.”

Whether the move reassures Republicans about Trump’s candidacy is anyone’s guess.

“I don’t know what to make of anything Trump does anymore,” one House Republican publicly backing Trump told The Hill. “No one really wants to talk about Trump, and there’s no confidence he will improve or help anyone.”

Trump faces a major deficit both in fundraising and advertising in the general election campaign.

His super-PAC fundraising has been negligible, while the major super-PAC backing presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has about $50 million in the bank. And that Clinton group has reserved almost $150 million in advertising on top of tens of millions reserved by the Clinton campaign. 

Trump, on the other hand, has not announced any major general election advertising. 

Opponents of Trump were skeptical that the billionaire businessman will get his ship in order.

“Firing your campaign manager normally isn’t the sign of a winning campaign,” Sarah Isgur Flores, a former top aide to Carly Fiorina’s presidential campaign, told MSNBC.

“I’m not sure anyone thinks that Corey Lewandowski was Donald Trump’s puppet master … I really doubt this makes a difference to the fundamentals of who Donald Trump is and his persona that he likes,” she said.

A spokesman for the New Hampshire Republican Party told The Hill that Lewandowski is still a Trump delegate from the state and that the only way for him to be replaced under state law is if Lewandowski tells the state party he is unable to attend the convention. 

The Trump campaign does not have the power to remove his delegate position, and Lewandowski told CNN that he still plans to attend the Republican National Convention in July and vote for Trump as the party’s nominee. 

Jonathan Swan and Scott Wong contributed.

This story was updated at 4:55 p.m.