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| Trump camp says persona is 'an act' as it woos GOP insiders | Trump camp says persona is 'an act' as it woos GOP insiders |
| (about 7 hours later) | |
| The Trump campaign outlined its general election strategy to the Republican establishment on Thursday in a closed-door briefing to members of the Republican National Committee. | |
| Over heaping piles of seafood, plates of cheese and an open bar at a resort in Hollywood, Florida, newly hired Trump campaign staffers Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley, as well as former presidential rival Ben Carson, tried to sell longtime party activists on their candidate’s ability to beat Hillary Clinton in November. | Over heaping piles of seafood, plates of cheese and an open bar at a resort in Hollywood, Florida, newly hired Trump campaign staffers Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley, as well as former presidential rival Ben Carson, tried to sell longtime party activists on their candidate’s ability to beat Hillary Clinton in November. |
| This comes as part of a new charm offensive by Trump to become more of a traditional candidate that will include a foreign policy speech Wednesday at the National Press Club. The major and controversial shift in campaign strategy comes as Manafort has worked to sideline campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who has urged the necessity of continuing to “let Trump be Trump” and maintaining an unconventional outsider campaign. | |
| Related: Trump to change nomination rules if he becomes GOP nominee, Ben Carson says | Related: Trump to change nomination rules if he becomes GOP nominee, Ben Carson says |
| Brushing past any concern that Trump might not be the nominee, Manafort and Wiley set out a general election argument where they insisted that Trump’s high negatives could be overcome. A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that 65% of Americans have an unfavorable view of the Republican frontrunner. | Brushing past any concern that Trump might not be the nominee, Manafort and Wiley set out a general election argument where they insisted that Trump’s high negatives could be overcome. A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that 65% of Americans have an unfavorable view of the Republican frontrunner. |
| However, they insisted that once voters got to know the real Trump, as opposed to the public face he has presented while campaigning and while hosting the NBC reality show The Apprentice, they will warm to him. He said that person was just an act. | |
| Manafort told reporters after the meeting: “We just have to present him in a way that shows all sides of Donald Trump.” They insisted to attendees that Clinton’s negatives were far harder to overcome than Trump’s. Clinton is currently viewed negatively by 56% of voters according to the same poll. Notably, Manafort referred to Clinton as “Crooked Hillary” within the briefing, using the nickname that Trump bestowed upon her. | |
| The two staffers also laid out a state-by-state general election path for Trump with a map likened to George HW Bush’s path to victory in the 1988 election against Michael Dukakis. The Trump officials had two tiers of targets. The first group consisted of states George W Bush won in 2004 and that Barack Obama won in 2008. These include perennial swing states such as Ohio, Florida, Iowa and Nevada. | The two staffers also laid out a state-by-state general election path for Trump with a map likened to George HW Bush’s path to victory in the 1988 election against Michael Dukakis. The Trump officials had two tiers of targets. The first group consisted of states George W Bush won in 2004 and that Barack Obama won in 2008. These include perennial swing states such as Ohio, Florida, Iowa and Nevada. |
| The second group was what they described as “steel states”, which have not gone Republican since 1988: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Connecticut. There they believed that Trump could win over former Democrats and edge out Clinton. However, they relied on public polling data that in some cases was months old to make this argument and Trump was not winning in a single one of those states. | |
| Manafort and Wiley also took pains to reassure Republican party officials that they would work with state parties to raise money and support downballot candidates in November. As Manafort noted to reporters afterwards, the conversation was not just about expanding the map but how the campaign would “work with state parties to change the map”. | Manafort and Wiley also took pains to reassure Republican party officials that they would work with state parties to raise money and support downballot candidates in November. As Manafort noted to reporters afterwards, the conversation was not just about expanding the map but how the campaign would “work with state parties to change the map”. |
| This was meant to reassure party officials inside the room that the Trump campaign had turned the page. As Matt Moore, the chair of the South Carolina Republican party described it, “it was a peace offering” that they would raise money and help state parties after the frontrunner had spent much of the campaign railing against party elders. | This was meant to reassure party officials inside the room that the Trump campaign had turned the page. As Matt Moore, the chair of the South Carolina Republican party described it, “it was a peace offering” that they would raise money and help state parties after the frontrunner had spent much of the campaign railing against party elders. |
| Steve Duprey, a national committeeman from New Hampshire, told reporters: “They did more to reassure us that the Trump campaign is building out their infrastructure and understands the financial challenges of the general election.” | Steve Duprey, a national committeeman from New Hampshire, told reporters: “They did more to reassure us that the Trump campaign is building out their infrastructure and understands the financial challenges of the general election.” |
| Speaking about the shakeup in the campaign, he added: “I think all of us who have been at this a long time are more reassured that they are doing this with folks who done this before.” | Speaking about the shakeup in the campaign, he added: “I think all of us who have been at this a long time are more reassured that they are doing this with folks who done this before.” |