--- title: Donald Trump Campaign Splits From Rick Wiley description: There are reports that Wiley clashed with Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. canonical: https://time.com/4349075/trump-rick-wiley-fired/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-26T15:52:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:08.286Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Campaign Fires National Political Director Rick Wiley og:description: There are reports that Wiley clashed with Trump's campaign manager. og:url: https://time.com/4349075/trump-rick-wiley-fired/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf3cef9251974f36/6988951f3c16391d6c45d6c1/rick-wiley-trump-campaign.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: rick wiley trump campaign og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Campaign Fires National Political Director Rick Wiley twitter:description: There are reports that Wiley clashed with Trump's campaign manager. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf3cef9251974f36/6988951f3c16391d6c45d6c1/rick-wiley-trump-campaign.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Campaign Splits From National Political Director Rick Wiley > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian May 26, 2016 3:52 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's political strategist Rick Wiley arrives for a reception during the Republican National Committee Spring meeting on April 21, 2016 in Florida. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's political strategist Rick Wiley arrives for a reception during the Republican National Committee Spring meeting on April 21, 2016 in Florida. Joe Raedle—Getty Images  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian May 26, 2016 3:52 PM UTC Donald Trump’s presidential campaign [announced its split](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/trump-parts-ways-with-top-aide-223590) from national political director Rick Wiley on Wednesday. A statement said the campaign [hired Wiley](http://time.com/4293359/donald-trump-wyoming/) in the middle of April on a temporary basis, and that his services are no longer needed given Trump’s success. Throughout Wiley’s time with the campaign, there have been reports that he did not see eye-to-eye with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski during clashes between Trump’s original staff and the later additions, including [Paul Manafort](http://time.com/4305591/donald-trump-campaign-shuffle/). “Rick Wiley was hired on a short-term basis as a consultant until the campaign was running full steam,” the campaign said in the statement. “It is now doing better than ever, we are leading in the polls, and we have many exciting events ready to go, far ahead of schedule, while Hillary continues her long, boring quest against Bernie. We would like to thank Rick for helping us during this transition period.” Trump brought Wiley, a veteran political operative with the GOP, on board when the campaign sought to appeal more to the party’s establishment [and elites](http://time.com/4304335/donald-trump-gop-elite-rnc/). Recently, Wiley has also been in conflict with Karen Giorno, an operative from Lewandowski’s camp who led Trump’s campaign during the Florida primary, [_Politico_ reports](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/trump-parts-ways-with-top-aide-223590). \[[_Politico_](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/trump-parts-ways-with-top-aide-223590)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4349075/trump-rick-wiley-fired/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4349075/trump-rick-wiley-fired/"},"headline":"Trump Campaign Splits From National Political Director Rick Wiley","datePublished":"2016-05-26T15:52:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:08.286Z","description":"There are reports that Wiley clashed with Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski","url":"https://time.com/4349075/trump-rick-wiley-fired/","keywords":["2016 Election","politics","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf3cef9251974f36/6988951f3c16391d6c45d6c1/rick-wiley-trump-campaign.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf3cef9251974f36/6988951f3c16391d6c45d6c1/rick-wiley-trump-campaign.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"rick wiley trump campaign","caption":"rick wiley trump campaign","creditText":"Joe Raedle—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4349075/trump-rick-wiley-fired/","name":"Trump Campaign Splits From National Political Director Rick Wiley"}}]}] ```