We begin today’s roundup with this piece by Philip Rucker, Dan Balz and Robert Costa at The Washington Post on comments made by Donald Trump advisors at a closed door meeting:
Trump’s chief strategist Paul Manafort told members of the Republican National Committee in a closed-door briefing here Thursday afternoon that his candidate has been playing a “part” on the campaign trail, but is starting to pivot toward presenting a more businesslike and presidential “persona.” [...]
Manafort said Trump is “totally committed” to “carrying the brand of the Republican Party” in the fall. He reassured RNC members that Trump would view them as “partners” in the general election.
Steve Peoples and Thomas Beaumont at the AP:
The message, delivered behind closed doors in a private briefing, is part of the campaign's intensifying effort to convince party leaders Trump will moderate his tone in the coming months to help deliver big electoral gains this fall, despite his contentious ways. [...]
"He gets it," Manafort said of Trump's need to moderate his personality. "The part that he's been playing is evolving into the part that now you've been expecting, but he wasn't ready for, because he had first to complete the first phase. The negatives will come down. The image is going to change."
The message was welcomed by some party officials but criticized by others who suggested it raised doubts about his authenticity
Josh Voorhees at Slate looks at Trump’s “evolution”:
“The campaign is evolving and transitioning, and so am I,” Trump boasted to the Wall Street Journalon Wednesday, promising to be “more effective and more disciplined” on the trail. “I’m not going to blow it,” he added. [...] … by feigning in the direction of the traditional with a few more moderate sound bites or the promise of a more effective ground game—actions his supporters can live with in the name of the almighty victory—Trump has created cover for himself to embrace other insider practices that he’s spent the past year specifically railing against.
Reina Flores at CBS News looks at the status of some of Trump’s promises:
It's hard to predict whether he will be able to deliver on those pledges after the election. But it might be instructive to look at the promises he's made that are purely operative during the campaign cycle. He has discarded some, deferred others, and kept only parts of others. [...]
Back when GOP delegate counts still seemed remote and pro forma, Donald Trump signed a loyalty pledge to his party. [...] Now, Trump appears to be waging an all-out war, accusing the RNC of a "rigged" election process. But on the key part of the pledge about not mounting a third-party bid: Trump has not implied he's about to go and run outside the party. Then again, he might just blow up the party if he doesn't win, a prospect not lost on the GOP poobahs who may be thinking wishfully, is there any way to get Trump to make a graceful exit from the race?
Stephen Nuño at NBC News points out that Trump is poised to get the lowest support among Latinos ever:
Donald Trump is poised to get the lowest vote ever among Latinos if he becomes the Republican candidate for president, says a recent poll commissioned by America's Voice, a group that advocates for immigration reform.
According to the poll, Donald Trump also garners the most unfavorable view among Latinos, with 87 percent of Latinos saying they see him as unfavorable. By comparison, Latinos' unfavorable view of Hillary Clinton is 32 percent and her favorable rating is 61 percent. Bernie Sanders had the same favorability among Latinos, at 61 percent but is less unpopular than Clinton, with 24 percent of Latinos having an unfavorable opinion of the Vermont Senator.
George W. Bush won almost 40 percent of the Latino vote in 2004, with some estimates showing Ronald Reagan doing as well 20 years earlier, marking the high point of the Republican potential for Latino voters.
And, on a final note, here’s Sean Illing’s take at Salon on the “new’ Donald Trump:
For the last year, Trump has been unwieldy, undisciplined, and inconsistent. That approach may win him the most primary votes, but it won’t unite the party behind him at the convention. If anything, the 1.0 version of Trump was talking and insulting himself into a political cul-de-sac. But Trump 2.0, as Cillizza put it, will “show unbound delegates as well as party leaders and influencers that he can be magnanimous, that he can be a uniting force within the party.” “The campaign is evolving and transitioning,” Trump said recently, “and so am I. I’ll be more effective and more disciplined. I’m not going to blow it.”
All of these changes ought to terrify Republicans looking to stop Trump. If the Donald is going to feign dignity and talk like an actual presidential candidate, they’re in real trouble. It’s much easier to sabotage Trump at the convention if he’s still playing the role of the race-baiting clown. But if he’s willing to play the game as he has the last week or so, well, that adds a whole new layer to the Republican race.