CLEVELAND — After Corey Lewandowski got fired by Donald Trump, he quickly recast himself as the campaign’s biggest unofficial cheerleader, but during this week’s Republican convention, Trump insiders say, Lewandowski has been acting more like a saboteur.

Lewandowski, who served as campaign manager until being pushed out amid a bitter feud with campaign chairman Paul Manafort, has caused a series of headaches for his former colleagues and their allies.


Inside the campaign, Trump sources said, staffers were irate with Lewandowski’s surprising suggestion on Tuesday — on the national airwaves of his new employer CNN — that Manafort should resign if he approved Melania Trump’s much-criticized Monday night speech.

But behind the scenes, Lewandowski was even more accusatory, according to two sources, who said Lewandowski claimed to reporters and others that Manafort and his deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, were directly responsible for the speech, which contained passages strikingly similar to those in Michelle Obama's Democratic convention speech in 2008.

In addition, Lewandowski, in conversations at the convention with major donors, has disparaged two pro-Trump super PACs, including one run by former Manafort associate Laurie Gay, according to a GOP fundraiser who discussed the matter with Lewandowski.

“The campaign has always been frustrated with Corey's antics,” said one campaign insider. “The real question is: When will CNN join the rest of us.”

Lewandowski did not respond to a text message, email or phone call seeking comment.

Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller declined to discuss Lewandowski, but he rejected the notion that Gates had any role in Melania Trump’s speech.

And the candidate’s son, Donald Trump Jr., said Manafort didn't either, suggesting that Lewandowski’s public shot at Manafort stemmed from their campaign feud and Lewandowski’s bitterness over having lost it.

The claim that Manafort was responsible for Melania Trump’s speech was “nonsense,” Donald Trump Jr. told CBS' Norah O'Donnell on Tuesday.

There is a reason, Trump said, that Manafort “is in the position that he is today and Corey’s not. And it’s not because Paul’s amateur hour. It has nothing to do with that,” Trump said. “I mean, listen, I understand, he’s not here anymore, you want to try and maintain relevance, you want to be on TV, you want to do these things.”

Indeed, Lewandowski’s prominent presence at the convention, exactly one month after being fired, has been a source of increasing frustration among many members of Trump’s campaign staff and their allies. They see Lewandowski as working to retain the perception that he is an influential member of Trump’s inner circle.

Lewandowski was thrust from relative obscurity to the center of the national stage while helping Trump surge from the political fringe to the precipice of the GOP presidential nomination. In the process, he built a strong rapport with Trump by encouraging his confrontational instincts and treating him with absolute reverence, unfailingly referring to him as “Mr. Trump” or “Sir.”

As the chair of New Hampshire’s delegation, Lewandowski on Tuesday night took evident pleasure in pointing out to the convention that the state, through its first-in-the-nation primary, delivered “the first victory on [Trump’s] behalf on a path to 38 victories that he achieved.”

View Lewandowski calls for Manafort resignation Corey Lewandowski said Donald Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort should resign if he was the last one to review Melania Trump’s speech

The state was awarding the majority of its delegate votes, he proclaimed, to “my friend, and the next president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.”

A Trump associate said Lewandowski frequently reaches out to Trump to try to tender advice, often via texts through his personal security director Keith Schiller, though the associate questioned how often Trump actually responded.

“Corey is becoming a real nuisance, but he has no power,” said the associate. “He is still trying to get back at Manafort and [Manafort ally Roger] Stone for pushing him out.”

But Lewandowski has been seen regularly in Cleveland at the side of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, an early Trump supporter with whom Lewandowski developed a close relationship during his time as campaign manager. Lewandowski had pushed Christie for vice president, both while he was on the campaign and after he was fired, according to two sources around the campaign.

The pair held court on the convention floor late Monday greeting all manner of well-wishers, and they were seen disembarking from a black SUV outside the convention hall on Tuesday.

Also during Monday’s convention proceedings, Lewandowski was spotted lingering around the Trump family box in the convention hall. Three sources in or around the campaign said Lewandowski was barred from entering the box, which was occupied by an assortment of Trump insiders and dignitaries, including Trump’s vice presidential pick, Mike Pence, the candidate's daughter Tiffany Trump and former Sen. Bob Dole.

“He still acts like he’s on the campaign, but he has no juice anymore,” said a GOP operative who organized a Monday night reception with major donors to which Lewandowski unsuccessfully sought an invitation.

Ben Schreckinger contributed to this report.