OPINION:
I have to give credit, where credit is due, and Rush Limbaugh nailed it on his radio show Thursday. Donald Trump loves women and the shakeup within his own campaign reflects that.
On Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump’s campaign issued a statement that Rick Wiley, who they had hired in April as Mr. Trump’s national political director, was let go. Although Mr. Trump’s statement was short on details, Politico reported Mr. Wiley picked a fight with the wrong person — Karen Giorno, who ran Mr. Trump’s campaign during the Florida GOP primary.
Politico writes the story as a turf battle — one between loyalists to Corey Lewandowski, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, and Paul Manafort, a establishment GOP operative who was brought on in late March to help professionalize the campaign.
But, as Mr. Limbaugh pointed out in his radio program, that misses the point.
What the campaign shakeup really demonstrates is how Mr. Trump stands up and promotes women — a narrative the press simply wants to ignore. For if Mr. Trump truly is the misogynist that the press wants to paint him as, he’d taken Mr. Wiley’s word over Mrs. Giorno simply because he’s a man.
But that’s not what happened.
According to the Politico article, Mr. Wiley tried to pull a power move on Mrs. Giorno, who had been loyal to Mr. Trump long before the March 15 Super Tuesday. Mr. Wiley, it appears, was looking to consolidate his own authority within the campaign and found Mrs. Giorno an easy target.
“For weeks, Wiley made appointments and had discussions with Florida Republicans and appeared to be building a new campaign from scratch,” sources told Politico — meaning he was working behind Mrs. Giorno’s back to build allies on her home turf.
“[Sources] say [Mr. Wiley] refused, at times, to return Giorno’s calls or take them,” Politico reports — meaning he wasn’t even trying to play nice with her.
“Giorno then began calling other Trump campaign officials to ask them whether Wiley had it out for her or for everyone,” Politico said.
Mr. Trump then called Mrs. Giorno and asked her what was going on. In the call between the two, according to Politico, Mrs. Giorno “unloaded” on Mr. Wiley.
Today, Mrs. Giorno remains on the campaign, and Mr. Wiley is gone.
This is significant — not only did Mr. Trump show loyalty, he did so with a woman on his campaign who probably had a much lower political profile than Mr. Wiley. Mr. Wiley was formerly Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential campaign manager.
Mr. Limbaugh predicted the press was going to get the story wrong, and he’s correct.
James Hohmann, a columnist at The Washington Post, deduced that Mr. Wiley’s firing meant there is “a raging internal turf war between the old guard and new guard,” and “Trump is not playing nice with the consultants favored by the establishment.”
Just seems to me, Mr. Wiley picked a fight with the wrong person. He hadn’t earned Mr. Trump’s trust and he overplayed his hand. In terms of Mr. Hohmann’s second point, well, Mr. Manafort continues to work for Mr. Trump and is seen on television daily. Seems like he’s doing just fine.
Kudos to Mr. Limbaugh for bringing the real issue to light. I second his thoughts.
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