Let Trump be Trump and he’ll sail through 2020

We worked for an unconventional candidate who said things that no typical politician would ever dare say. While Donald J. Trump could stoke controversy with one politically incorrect joke or tweet, he also had the unique capacity to empathize with an American voter who wanted somebody to evict the Washington establishment of both parties from the D.C. swamp.  

Trump was the only candidate who was willing to stand up for the little guy by promoting an America first policy on trade, immigration and foreign policy. Being Trump means being different from any other presidential candidate that we have ever experienced. In our new book, “Let Trump Be Trump,” we tell the story of his rise from the perspective of two guys who stood by Trump’s side and ended up being a part of the biggest upsets in American political history.

{mosads}Trump’s temperament has come into question recently, but his temperament is one of his great strengths. During the campaign, Trump’s mood could range from gracious and respectful on one hand and in another he could verbally rip your face off if he felt you let him down. He is a fascinating and unique person who has captured the interest of those who love him, and those who hate him. David and I love him because there is no other politician we would crawl into a bunker with to fight Republicans Democrats, the media and the Washington entrenched lobbying class.

During the debates, people tuned in to see the Donald Trump they had read and heard about. They wanted to see the Trump of lore in action fighting with the other Republican heavyweights. We write in the book:

“From the first debate on, Donald Trump decimated the field of primary candidates.  There were seventeen candidates in Cleveland in August (two tiers), and only four (Cruz, John Kasich, Rubio, and Trump) by the March CNN debate in Miami. The combination of Trump’s stage savvy and street smarts was devastating.”  

Trump is a scrapper and the only candidate with the raw strength of will to attack Republicans by exposing them as insiders and part of the problem.

Trump is a master of branding. Trump’s capacity to come up with names like Lyin’ Ted, Little Marco, Low-Energy Jeb and Crooked Hillary were devastating. After Trump dispensed with Jeb Bush who had the advantage of his father and brother’s network of fundraising contacts, he went after Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in a way that threw them both off their games. Trump’s aggressive style destroyed every last Republican primary opponent.

The debate moderators also had it out for Trump. Even Fox News allowed Megyn Kelly to read off a long-winded question that was intended to attack Trump during the first debate. The attack didn’t work, because after a joke about Rosie O’Donnell, Trump went on to show a depth on the issues that mattered to Republican voters. The media tried to spin him as a loser of the debates and they made him even more popular with the attacks. The voters could see with their own eyes that Trump won all of the primary debates.

When the general election rolled around, Trump was still a focus of attack, while Hillary Clinton was treated with kid gloves. We wrote:

“When you compare Donald Trump’s scandals to Hillary Clinton’s, the media’s demonization of Trump seems ludicrous. This is a woman who, in addition to her dismal record as secretary of state, had deleted 33,000 emails from the same server she’d used for official State Department business, acid-washed the server, and then destroyed cell phones with hammers to keep their contents from being discovered.”  

The media let Hillary Clinton skate on these scandals and the multiple financial outrages that involved large amounts of cash going to the Clinton Foundation, what appeared to be bribes.

We were part of a small team who witnessed history. No matter what the media will say about investigations and the Congressional slow-walking of Trump’s legislative agenda, nobody can take away the rollercoaster ride of a businessman who was initially given zero chance to be president. Even on election night, when it was clear that the media, pollsters and talking heads were all completely wrong about Trump, the media refused to give Trump his due. History was made and we were there.

We let Trump be Trump on the campaign trail, and if the people surrounding Trump right now will allow Trump to be Trump, the president will easily win a second term and all will end well.

Corey R. Lewandowski was former Campaign Manager and David N. Bossie was former Deputy Campaign Manager for Donald J. Trump for President. Lewandowski and Bossie have just released a book, “Let Trump Be Trump: The Inside Story of his Rise to the Presidency.”