Lewandowski: ‘I Could See A Scenario’ In Which Trump Is His Own Chief Of Staff

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Sunday that he could imagine President Donald Trump serving as his own chief of staff in the event of John Kelly’s ouster.

In an interview with Lewanowsi, NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd asked about a recent comment from former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon regarding such an arrangement.

Kelly’s “very ordered, very structured” style, Bannon told the Financial Times, was “probably too much.”

“There’s only about six or seven people who really have to see the President every day to make the place function. Like Jack Kennedy didn’t have a chief of staff, I predict you are going to a model where you don’t have a chief of staff,” Bannon, who once called for the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” said.

“I think that’s a scenario that could very well play out,” Lewandowski told Todd of Bannon’s proposal. 

“I see him as the hub with a number of spokes coming out,” he added later, referring to Trump. “And candidly, and I’m not advocating for General Kelly to leave, I think he should stay, but if he were to go, I don’t think there’s one person who is the chosen one to step in and fill that role, so I could see a scenario where the President is giving instructions to a small core group of individuals who are then implementing on his behalf.”

Lewandowski said he could imagine a small group — “call it four, five, six people” — taking orders directly from Trump instead of a chief of staff.

That model, Lewandowski said, “is something that he’s very comfortable with over his 40 years of business experience doing that.”