Update: I was wrong. There was no convivial joint exit from the meeting for the cameras and reporters. So much for the optics of reconciliation. It is truly amazing how cool the GOP power structure is to wholeheartedly endorsing the presidential candidate that will be running on their ticket.
Donald J. Trump is meeting with House Majority Leader Paul Ryan and RNC Chair Reince Preibus as I write this. By the time most of you read this, the meeting will be over and they will have emerged for the cameras side by side. Pundits and the thinking public will be alert for non-verbal cues as they announce that Rep. Ryan and the RNC are supporting Trump as the Republican candidate for President of the United States.
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On Morning Joe Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, just called Trump “a work in progress as a candidate.” Another Republican, Rep. Charlie Dent (PA) , referred to Trump’s “incendiary comments.”
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From The New York Times telephone interview: "you win the pennant and now you're in the World Series — you gonna change? People like the way I'm doing… I think I have a mandate from the people. The people are tired of incompetent leadership at the highest level. They're tired of trade deals that are ripping our jobs apart and taking their wages."
From now on Trump’s candidacy will be all about changing the optics. He’s already brazenly back off from one of his key applause sound bites demonizing Muslims. He’s going to get away with this because he will spin it as a strength, as proof that he is rational and warm hearted and really loves the vast majority of Muslims who are really good people.
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If he decides he needs to, he’ll even back off from his hate-mongering rhetoric about illegal Mexican immigrants. He’ll tell us that he really loves all the Mexicans who are mostly good people. It will work with moderate Republicans, although Hispanics will never forget that in pandering to bigots he called them rapists and criminals.
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His racist supporters will assume he’s only saying what he needs to in order to win. He has them so brainwashed that they believe he is as bigoted as they are, and that, to paraphrase Barry Goldwater, lying in the defense of white privilege is no vice.
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Can Donald Trump change his public personality to convince mainstream Republican voters the changes are real? I think this is a crucial and open question.
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Will he convince GOP establishment politicians that the change is real? I truly doubt it. But the majority will support him with varying degrees of enthusiasm anyway, especially those running for office who are concerned that they may loose if perceived as being to closely allied with Trump.
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Trump will most likely change positions on the hard to understand issues to align them with establishment Republicans. For example trade. This is one of the main issues he disagrees with Rep. Ryan on. Trump will easy mouth the words Ryan wants to hear because Trump’s base doesn’t really care about, let alone understand, the complexities of trade policy. I rather doubt the majority of people at his rallies could tell you what T.T.P. stand for, and NAFTA would be a real stretch for them.
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How much of the old Trump will we see as he campaigns against Hillary Clinton? Will the unhinged insult hurling Trump take a chill pill? Will the wild Tweet warrior learn to moderate his flying fingers of hate? The answer to this only his therapist could answer because it depends on whether or not his impulsivity and unpredictability is a symptom of a psychiatrist disorder. (As a therapist myself, I can say that if it is, we do have a pill for that.)
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Can, Trump, as a Joel Benenson, a senior campaign advisor to Hillary Clinton, just said on TV, airbrush who he is and what he’s said? This is aptly put by a Democrat, but I bet that rational Republicans leaders are wondering the same thing.
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Trump the person will not change. He likes himself the way he is. Hell, like all narcissists, he loves himself the way he is. As a candidate he is a work in progress, but all he’ll be doing is transmogrifying his true self for public consumption.
