Corey Lewandowski, ousted from his government post alongside fired DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, is maneuvering for a return to Trump's inner circle by floating a primary challenge against Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Lewandowski, 52, went on conservative podcaster John Fredericks' show in late June and laid the groundwork publicly. Thune, he said, "is very susceptible to a very serious Republican primary challenge" when the South Dakota senator faces voters in 2028. He added that "the American people will be looking at someone who has a proven history of winning an election in South Dakota to maybe challenge John Thune", a description that fits one person: Noem, the former governor who became the first woman elected to that office in 2018.
The pitch lands at a moment when both Lewandowski and Noem are political outcasts trying to rebuild. President Trump fired Noem as Homeland Security secretary in March after a string of controversies over immigration enforcement and a congressional hearing in which she refused to directly deny an alleged affair with Lewandowski. Lewandowski left his special government employee role at DHS at the same time. Whether Trump forced him out or he departed voluntarily remains disputed, his allies insist he left on his own terms, while other sources say Trump pushed him.
Lewandowski's case against Thune rests on numbers. A May poll from KELOLAND and Emerson College found Trump's job approval among South Dakota voters at 53 percent. Thune's approval sat at 28 percent, a 25-point gap in a state Trump carried by nearly 30 points.
Reached by the New York Post on Thursday, Lewandowski did not back down. He pivoted to the SAVE America Act, legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo identification to cast a ballot, and cast Thune as the obstacle.
"President Trump carried the state of South Dakota by nearly 30 points. The people of that state overwhelmingly support his agenda for America."
He added: "No politician is immune to the will of the voters."
Thune, 65, has not committed to seeking a fifth Senate term but signaled he expects to run. On Capitol Hill this week, he told reporters his assumption is that he will seek re-election, adding, "Every election has an impact on that, so we'll see how it comes out in November." Trump has expressed frustration that the SAVE America Act lacks the 60 votes needed to clear a Senate filibuster, and Thune has publicly acknowledged the bill does not have the support to pass, a stance that gives Lewandowski an opening to frame him as insufficiently loyal to the president's agenda.
Republican strategists with South Dakota ties told the Post that Thune remains in a strong position for 2028. But Lewandowski's public comments raised eyebrows from Washington to the Black Hills.
Sources close to the situation described Lewandowski's maneuvering in blunt terms. One unnamed Republican strategist said he is "looking for ways to get back in good with President Trump." Another source said Lewandowski "values that relationship more than anything else" and "dines out" on having the president's ear, a currency that evaporated when he lost his government post.
The stakes are commercial as well as political. Lewandowski runs Lewandowski Strategic Advisors, a government and public affairs firm whose success depends on proximity to power. Without Trump's good graces, the firm's value drops.
Floating a Noem-versus-Thune primary serves multiple purposes. It positions Lewandowski as a player who can shape Republican politics. It signals loyalty to Trump's agenda by targeting a senator who has publicly acknowledged limits on that agenda. And it keeps Noem, whose ambitions to reach the Oval Office date back to her time as governor, according to sources, in the conversation.
But Lewandowski has baggage that makes any comeback difficult. He tried to overthrow Susie Wiles during the 2024 campaign, the same Wiles who ran Trump's successful race and now serves as White House chief of staff. Making an enemy of the most powerful gatekeeper in the West Wing is not a minor obstacle.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the DHS inspector general found evidence Lewandowski may have been involved in improperly awarding federal contracts during his time as a special government employee. The internal watchdog was weighing whether to send a criminal referral to the Justice Department for potential prosecution. Lewandowski denied wrongdoing.
The contracts matter is only the latest in a long pattern. Lewandowski has been accused of numerous affairs and acting inappropriately with high-profile women in Trump's orbit. He has denied those claims. In 2021, Trump donor Trashelle Odom publicly accused Lewandowski of making unwanted sexual advances at a Las Vegas fundraising event, alleging he repeatedly touched her without permission and made lewd comments. Four firsthand witnesses corroborated her account, and Lewandowski was removed from his role running a Trump-supporting super PAC. Trump's team announced at the time that he would "no longer be associated with Trump World."
Noem herself severed ties with Lewandowski after the Odom allegations. Her communications director said at the time that Lewandowski "was always a volunteer, never paid a dime" by her campaign or official office. Noem dismissed rumors of an affair as "total garbage" and accused critics of attacking conservative women.
Yet the two are now openly together. This week, Noem and Lewandowski were spotted biking and, as the Post described it, canoodling at Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. TMZ published intimate photos. Neither commented on the images. Both remain officially married to other people, Lewandowski to Allison Hardy since 2005, and Noem to Byron Noem, from whom she is reportedly divorcing.
Noem's trajectory has been steep in both directions. She served four terms in the U.S. House before winning the South Dakota governor's mansion in 2018. She became a conservative favorite during the pandemic for refusing lockdowns. Trump tapped her to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
The tenure was rocky. DHS faced a series of controversies over immigration enforcement under her watch. A New York Magazine cover story claimed Lewandowski, not Noem, was the real power at the agency, a characterization DHS forcefully denied, with an assistant secretary telling Fox News Digital that "all decisions are made by Secretary Noem" and that Lewandowski served only in an advisory role.
Then came the congressional hearing. Democratic Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove asked Noem on the record whether she had sexual relations with Lewandowski during her time at DHS. Noem did not issue a direct denial, instead calling the questions "tabloid garbage." Rep. Jared Moskowitz pressed her to "say the word no into the record" to clear things up. She did not. Sources described the non-answer as the final straw that led Trump to fire her.
Her 2024 memoir, which included a story about shooting a "dangerous" family dog, had already damaged her national brand. One Republican strategist summed up her current standing in a single word: "Toxic."
Noem now holds the title of Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas at the State Department, a significant demotion from running DHS. She stayed out of the recent Republican gubernatorial runoff in South Dakota, declining to campaign for or endorse Larry Rhoden, her successor as governor, who cruised to renomination.
Republican strategists who have watched Lewandowski operate for a decade describe him as "smart and calculating", someone who "never fully goes away." He managed Trump's 2016 victory in the New Hampshire primary, helping catapult Trump to the Republican nomination. He has been fired, accused, cut loose, and written off before. Each time, he found a way back.
Whether this latest play works depends on a variable Lewandowski cannot control: Trump himself. The president has shown a willingness to welcome back allies who prove useful, but he has also shown he will discard them when they become liabilities. Lewandowski is currently carrying a potential criminal referral from a DHS inspector general, a public romantic entanglement with a fired cabinet secretary, and the enmity of the White House chief of staff.
Thune, for his part, gave no sign of alarm. His approval numbers in South Dakota are low, but incumbency and institutional power count for something, and no challenger has stepped forward. Noem has not announced or filed for anything.
Several open questions hang over the entire scenario. Has the DHS inspector general formally referred Lewandowski's case to the Justice Department, or is the referral still under consideration? What specific contracts are at issue? And does Trump have any interest in a proxy challenge to his own Senate majority leader, or would he view the gambit as a distraction from a loyalist he already discarded?
Washington rewards people who can deliver results and punishes those who deliver only drama. Right now, Lewandowski and Noem are generating plenty of the latter, and none of the former.
