Trump bucks calls to change
Advisers say his unscripted gaffes eclipse message
Donald Trump was in a state of shock: He had just fired his campaign manager and was watching the man discuss his dismissal at length on CNN. The rattled candidate’s advisers and family seized the moment for an intervention.
Joined by his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, a cluster of Trump’s confidants pleaded with him to make that day — June 20 — a turning point.
He would have to stick to a teleprompter and end his freestyle digressions and insults, like his repeated attacks on a Hispanic federal judge. Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey argued that Trump had an effective message, if only he would deliver it. For now, the campaign’s polling showed, too many voters described him in two words: “unqualified” and “racist.”
Trump bowed to his team’s entreaties, according to four people with detailed knowledge of the meeting, who described it on the condition of anonymity. It was time, he agreed, to get on track.
Nearly two months later, the effort to save Trump from himself has plainly failed. He has repeatedly signaled to his advisers and allies his willingness to change and adapt, but has
grown only more volatile and prone to provocation since then, clashing with a Gold Star family, making comments that have been seen as inciting violence and linking his political opponents to terrorism.
Advisers who once hoped a Pygmalion-like transformation would refashion a crudely effective political showman into a plausible American president now increasingly concede that Trump may be beyond coaching.
In private, Trump’s mood is often sullen and erratic, his associates say. He veers from barking at members of his staff to grumbling about how he was better off following his own instincts during the primaries and suggesting he should not have heeded their calls for change.
He broods about his souring relationship with the media, calling Manafort several times a day to talk about specific stories. Occasionally, Trump blows off steam in bursts of boyish exuberance: At the end of a fundraiser on Long Island, N.Y., last week, he playfully buzzed the crowd twice with his helicopter. Bewildered by process
But in interviews with more than 20 Republicans who are close to Trump or in communication with his campaign, many of whom insisted on anonymity to avoid clashing with him, they described their nominee as exhausted, frustrated and still bewildered by fine points of the political process and why his incendiary approach seems to be sputtering.
He is routinely preoccupied with perceived slights, and Trump has begun to acknowledge to associates and even in public that he might lose. In an interview Thursday on CNBC, he said he was prepared to face defeat.
“I’ll just keep doing the same thing I’m doing right now,” he said. “And at the end, it’s either going to work, or I’m going to, you know, I’m going to have a very, very nice, long vacation.”
Jason Miller, a spokesman for Trump, said the Republican nominee was determined to win.
“Behind the scenes we have a very motivated and very focused candidate in Donald Trump, who knows what he needs to do to win this race,” Miller said.
Trump’s advisers are still convinced of the basic potency of a sales pitch about economic growth and a shake-up in Washington, and they aspire to compete in as many as 21 states, despite Trump’s perilous standing in the four states — Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina — likely to decide the election.
Trump’s advisers now hope to steady him by pairing him on the trail with familiar, more seasoned figures — people he views as peers and enjoys spending time with, like former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York and former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas.
Giuliani, who campaigned with Trump early last week, said he did not see the candidate as unmoored or unhappy.
“He doesn’t seem to be as unnerved by these things that go wrong as the people around him,” Giuliani said. Still, he allowed, “I think it is true that maybe it took him a little while to realize that we’re moving from a primary campaign to a presidential campaign.” Another warning
Trump’s advisers believe he is nearly out of time to right his campaign. On Tuesday, hours before his explosive comment about “Second Amendment people” taking action if Hillary Clinton is elected, his brain trust reassembled at Trump Tower.
They again urged Trump to adjust his tone and comportment. The top pollster, Tony Fabrizio, gave an unvarnished assessment, warning that Trump’s numbers would only move in one direction, absent a major change.
Trump, people briefed on the meeting said, digested the advice and responded receptively.
It was time, he agreed, to get on track.