Corey Lewandowski had fought his way back from the brink of termination at least twice over the last few months, utilizing a no-holds-barred style of in-fighting seldom seen in presidential politics, while relying on the loyalty of a small group of allies and an unusually close relationship with his boss.

But Lewandowski’s survival strategy began to backfire this month. And by the time he was called into one of the executive offices at Donald Trump’s campaign headquarters in Manhattan’s Trump Tower on Monday morning for the final time as campaign manager, the once-obscure GOP operative had run out of lifelines.

He’d grown increasingly reckless in his power struggle, taking on the candidate’s own family and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus. He’d already told associates more than once in the past few months that he was on the verge of quitting, and some of his allies had either backed away from him or quit the campaign. So when Lewandowski was informed in a meeting with Trump’s adult children that he was being relieved of his dream job running the first-time candidate’s presidential campaign, the career GOP operative didn’t argue…

“He didn’t put up a fight because he is loyal,” said one Lewandowski associate. “The gloves had come off a while ago, and Corey spent a lot of energy fighting, which took away from the campaign.” The source said Lewandowski “was surrounded by enemies. He was outgunned.”