President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Corey Lewandowski and ex-campaign deputy manager David Bossie Tuesday, while talking about their book, "Let Trump be Trump," Tuesday recalled the first time they ever heard the president say the words "make America great again."
"David Bossie called me up and said, 'hey, i want to put together something called the Freedom Summit,'" Lewandowski told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "We had gone through a litany of people, and I said let's invite Mr. Trump . . . this is April of '14."
Trump went on to bring down the house, and at the end of that speech, he commented that "we need to make America great again," said Lewandowski. "It was the first time I heard the line, and that was the beginning of the rise of Trump on the political level. It was amazing."
Bossie, who chairs the conservative advocacy group Citizens United, said it was a "process" for him to believe Trump was running for office.
Bossie said he met Trump in 2010, when he was raising money for Children's National Medical Center, formerly DC Children's Hospital in Washington.
"My son had four brain surgeries and two open heart surgeries, and I wanted to help other children who didn't have the greatest healthcare to have it," said Bossie. "Donald Trump, without any press, just helped me as a human being. Steve Wynn, a mutual friend of ours helped. It was a great friendship from there."
Lewandowski, meanwhile, who came up with the phrase "Let Trump be Trump" noted that he grew up in a "very blue-collar town" in Massachusetts and never thought he'd have the chance to be on a presidential campaign, let alone run one, and "that the leader of the free world is a friend of mine."
"The hard work and dedication I learned it Massachusetts, the tenacity and to keep fighting," said Lewandowski. "That's what I tried to bring to the Trump campaign because every pundit on the left and all those mainstream liberals said he'll never run. He'll never succeed, and we weren't capable of winning."
Bossie said that he and Lewandowski also wrote in the book about the challenges of working for Trump, who "demands perfection" through his organization, books, TV deals, and real estate empire.
"He wanted it in the campaign, and that's what we tried to give him," said Bossie. "Some days, we failed, and it was tough because of things that we did. But I have to tell you, no greater boss."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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