Ew

Much like liberal social media users still posting “but her emails!” in 2024, Donald Trump seems stuck in 2016: The former president and current GOP presidential nominee has rehired Corey Lewandowski for a senior role in his campaign. Apparently, Trump is convinced if he just runs back his 2016 playbook bar-for-bar, he might be able to save his increasingly embattled campaign.

Except, there’s just one issue (there are actually a lot of issues with Lewandowski, but I’ll start with one)—Lewandowski allegedly sexually assaulted and harassed an important pro-Trump super PAC donor in September 2021. This resulted in Lewandowski being ousted from his senior position at the pro-Trump PAC and at least being temporarily blacklisted from “several Trump properties and clubs, MAGA events, and private social gatherings, especially if alcohol is served,” the Daily Beast reported at the time. The outlet even unearthed a text message from one Trump associate directing others “to simply turn Lewandowski away, or alert security” if he showed up at Trump events “in the foreseeable future.”

A representative for Lewandowski denied that he’d been banished by Trumpland: “Neither Mr. Lewandowski nor anyone on his legal team has received any communication consistent with the claim that he has been asked not to go to any Trump property. Absolutely none,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the Daily Beast in October 2021. Reps for Trump didn’t comment. The same report says at least two other women have accused Lewandowski of sexual misconduct.

He’s now, inexplicably, back in an unspecified senior leadership position on Trump’s campaign, Politico reported on Thursday. “As we head into the home stretch of this election, we are continuing to add to our impressive campaign team,” Trump co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement. Lewandowski was named as one of several “veterans of prior Trump campaigns,” whose “unmatched experience will help President Trump prosecute the case against Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the most radical ticket in American history.” The use of the word “prosecutor” is… odd, namely because Harris herself comes from a prosecutorial background, while Trump has been convicted of 34 felony charges, and Lewandowski has quite the rap sheet himself.

In 2021, we reported that Trump personally blessed blacklisting Lewandowski from his properties after Lewandowski allegedly sexually assaulted a super PAC donor. He was also ousted from the super PAC: https://t.co/427lWnDQCB https://t.co/N0f3EGccIH

— Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) August 15, 2024

In 2022, Lewandowski cut a deal with Las Vegas prosecutors to avoid a misdemeanor charge for allegedly assaulting the donor, Trashelle Odom, in exchange for completing “impulse control counseling,” community service, and paying a fine. Before that, he faced simple battery charges in Palm Beach County for allegedly assaulting a then-Breitbart reporter named Michelle Fields during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, though the charges were ultimately dropped. There is, in fact, an entire Ballotpedia page titled “Alleged altercations involving Corey Lewandowski at Donald Trump campaign events.”

It’s pretty unideal to have even one such “altercation,” let alone an entire page of them. He’s previously overtly threatened journalists and political media figures like Megyn Kelly and Tim Miller, and allegedly got physically aggressive with protesters at a Phoenix Trump rally in 2016.

The man’s professionalism—or rather, lack thereof—is utterly unmatched. In 2018, he reportedly had a romantic relationship with then-Trump aide Hope Hicks, and, as recently as September, reports surfaced of his sexual affair with Kristi Noem, South Dakota’s governor and a married woman.

And it doesn’t seem Lewandowski has many allies—Trump’s own kids have reportedly trash-talked him to their dad, per the Daily Beast, and large swaths of MAGA-world were reportedly pleased with his alleged banishment in 2021. Trump’s latest personnel decision to bring Lewandowski back into the fold seems like an act of desperation. Now that the deeply unpopular President Biden has bowed out, Trump’s poll numbers are tanking, and it doesn’t help that every time his running mate J.D. Vance opens his mouth, voters are even more weirded out. The Trumpian logic seems to be: Trump won in 2016, and Lewandowski was a big part of the 2016 campaign, ergo, bringing him back is a good idea.

To that, I say, what the hell! Sure! Go ahead, bring back the guy who seems physically unable to stop himself from assaulting pretty much everyone, rehire him to your tanking campaign, and let’s see what happens come November, I guess.