The Question That Did In Corey Lewandowski

For all the drama associated with Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, it was his inability to answer a simple question from the boss that sealed his fate, writes Gabriel Sherman at New York. "What's your plan here?" Trump asked Lewandowski at a meeting Monday morning in which the candidate's children ticked off a litany of complaints about the state of the campaign. Lewandowski didn't have much of an answer: He suggested that the campaign leak word of Trump's VP pick ahead of the convention. "And with that, Lewandowski was out," writes Sherman. Trump, "shocked" that Lewandowski didn't have a grand strategy to ease his children's concerns, had security escort him from the building soon after the meeting.

The New York piece and another at CNN suggest that Trump's daughter, Ivanka, played a large role in the decision to oust Lewandowski. Both cite rumors that he had tried to plant negative stories in the press about Ivanka's husband, Jared Kushner, who has an influential role in the campaign. Lewandowski, however, was putting a happier public face on the split, telling CNN that he has a "great relationship with the family" and was unsure about why he was fired. On Fox News later, Trump himself praised Lewandowski as a friend who "did a great job," adding that "it's time now for a different kind of campaign," reports Politico. (More Corey Lewandowski stories.)