Former President Trump is starting up a new political action committee and is eyeing longtime top political adviser and aide Corey Lewandowski to head up the new super PAC, multiple people with knowledge of the conversations confirmed to Fox News.
The move was decided during a meeting late last week at Trump’s south Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago when the former president gathered with his political team. The group included 2020 campaign managers Bill Stepien and Brad Parscale, senior adviser Jason Miller, former White House social media director Dan Scavino, and Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
Sources familiar with the meeting shared that a number of Trump’s post-presidency political activities were discussed and added that plans to start up the PAC were not finalized.
“MAGA supporters and candidates supporting President Trump’s America First agenda are going to be impressed with the political operation being built out here,” Miller said. “We expect formal announcements of the full team in the coming weeks, which will include some very talented operatives not yet named.”
Lewandowski served as Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign manager, from the start of Trump’s first White House bid in early 2015 through the 2016 GOP presidential primaries, when he was fired. But he remained close with Trump as an outside adviser. And Lewandowski was a top adviser on Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign.
The meeting comes as Trump vows to remain the dominant figure in the GOP going forward and pledges to support primary challengers against Republicans up for reelection in 2022 who have crossed him in the past or who weren’t supportive of his efforts to try and reverse his election loss last year to Joe Biden. Trump’s also flirting with a presidential run in 2024 to try to return to the White House.
The former president’s expected to tease a 2024 presidential bid as he addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Sunday in Orlando, Fla. The speech at CPAC, the largest annual gathering of conservative activists and leaders, will be Trump’s first since leaving the White House on Jan. 20. Fox Nation is a sponsor of CPAC 2021.
The latest public opinion polling indicates that the former president remains extremely popular and influential with Republican voters. And his clout with most congressional Republicans remains very formidable.
Immediately after the November election, the then-president formed a leadership PAC, named Save America, that’s hauled in tens of millions of dollars. But unlike leadership PACs, which have restraints on how much cash they can raise from donors, super PACs are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money.
Lewandowski recently formed his own new PAC, Fight Back America, to support GOP candidates who are mounting primary challenges against congressional Republicans who voted last month to impeach Trump.
Another name floated to serve as a possible chair of the new super PAC is Linda McMahon. The former professional wrestling executive steered the Small Business Administration during the first two years of the Trump presidency before chairing the pro-Trump America First Action super PAC during the 2020 election cycle.
