Trump Aides Say He's About to Change Persona
'You'll see a real different guy,' they tell GOP leaders in private meeting
By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2016 4:19 AM CDT
newser.com
(NEWSER) – No more Mr. Trump Guy? At a Republican National Committee meeting in Florida Thursday, senior Donald Trump advisers told worried GOP leaders that the brash persona the candidate has projected for as long as anybody can remember is about to be replaced by something more electable.
"The part that he's been playing is now evolving into the part that you've been expecting. The negatives will come down, the image is going to change," top aide Paul Manafort said, according to a recording heard by Reuters.
"You'll start to see more depth of the person, the real person. You'll see a real different guy," Manafort promised, adding that Trump plans to start focusing on "crooked Hillary." He explained that Trump "had to first feed the first phase" before softening his image. "When he's sitting in a room, he's talking business, he's talking politics in a private room, it's a different persona," Manafort said, per NBC News. "When he's out on the stage, when he's talking about the kinds of things he's talking about on the stump, he's projecting an image that's for that purpose." ABC News reports that at a rally in Harrisburg, Pa.,
on Thursday, Trump seemed unready to start projecting the image his advisers promised. "I just don't know if I want to do it yet," he said, adding: "At some point, I'm going to be so presidential that you people will be so bored." Ted Cruz, meanwhile, said he was glad Trump had admitted that it's "all an act, a show," the AP reports. (Conservatives aren't happy about Trump's position on North Carolina's "bathroom bill.") |
