Still waiting...

Waiting for the new Trump

Changes are underway in the candidate's operation, but can he change himself?

By Eli Stokols

As Hillary Clinton spoke Tuesday, Donald Trump’s campaign blasted out nine rapid-response emails to counter the Democrat’s narrative that he would be disastrous for the country’s economy. Trump trashed Clinton on Twitter as well but didn't use his “Crooked Hillary” nickname.

However cosmetic, the changes were noteworthy just one day after the firing of former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who everyone from campaign chairman Paul Manafort to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Trump’s adult children believed had impeded efforts to professionalize Trump’s unconventional operation. The rapid response emails, which included myriad statistics about the country’s slow economic recovery under the Obama administration, are one indication that the campaign heard criticism about its slow response to Clinton’s last speech.

They’re also an indication that Manafort intends to make Trump’s campaign more disciplined and professional. And Trump family confidant Michael Cohen, a top executive in Trump’s corporation, said the candidate’s three adult children — who, along with son-in-law Jared Kushner, were all involved in Lewandowski’s firing — would be taking on greater roles both inside the operation and as surrogates for the candidate himself.

“They’re all incredibly bright, well-spoken and articulate advocates for their father, especially in dispelling some of the false reporting against Mr. Trump by the liberal mainstream media,” Cohen said.

But many Republicans, both supporters and skeptics of Trump’s campaign, note that the consolidation of power by Manafort and the children does not guarantee any change in the candidate himself, whose undisciplined past few weeks — from his racially tinged criticism of a federal judge to his off-key, self-congratulatory response to the Orlando terrorist attack — have discouraged donors and leery Republicans who’d still been trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.

In a news release Tuesday night, Trump's campaign confirmed that it has beefed up its communications staff while formally announcing several hires, including a national political director and a director of surrogates, made in recent weeks. But the campaign also rolled out a new website using the very phrase he avoided in his tweets, lyingcrookedhillary.com. The site isn't live yet.

On Wednesday, Trump is set to give a speech that will seek to outline his argument against Clinton, who made her first, focused speech criticizing him nearly a month ago. Seven weeks after securing the GOP nomination, Trump has struggled to fully pivot into general election mode. Many observers both inside and outside the campaign will be watching for signs that Trump has reined in his shoot-from-the-hip excesses.

Trump’s children have long blamed Lewandowski and his “let Trump be Trump” strategy for their father’s recent struggles — and for driving a wedge between Trump and advisers who dared suggest the candidate who ran roughshod over 16 GOP primary challengers needs to adjust his approach for the general election.

Ivanka Trump and her husband, Kushner, whose influence has grown in recent months, had been trying to convince nervous, more mainstream Republicans that Trump was just doing what he had to do to win the primary and that a pivot was imminent. “They told people he inherently understood the tone and temperament required of a general election and that the real Trump was sophisticated, charming, successful — a dealmaker who would be able to cut the deal,” one high-level GOP source said.

“But in the last six weeks, the best dealmaker of all time can't close the deal with his own party, and it’s based on his temperament. It's not issues, it's that people think he's mentally unfit to be president.”

Manafort is working to build out the communications staff, a venture Lewandowski had repeatedly blocked.

Beyond messaging, Trump has yet to spend significant time campaigning in swing states, traveling last week to deeply red states like Texas in order to play catch-up on the fundraising front. On Tuesday, he continued his outreach to a core Republican constituency, meeting with evangelical leaders at Trump Tower in another effort to unify a fractured conservative coalition. None of the eight organizers of the meeting was willing to officially endorse Trump afterward.

Nor does this week’s campaign shakeup obscure Trump’s staggering financial disadvantage or the Republican Party’s attempts to paint a more positive picture of the reality that its presumptive presidential nominee has less cash on hand than many congressional candidates.

Sean Spicer, the RNC communications director, said it’s silly to compare Trump’s $1.3 million cash-on-hand total to Clinton’s $42.5 million sum because the billionaire has self-financed much of his campaign to date. “If he wanted to get that number up in two seconds, he just strokes a check and it’s up.”

Trump himself vowed Tuesday to match any soft money contributions made over the following 48 hours up to $2 million, another effort to portray the situation as far from bleak but one that could backfire should donors believe that the campaign’s finances are in good shape.

“Part of the problem is he keeps saying, ‘I’m gonna put that kind of money in,’ which makes it very difficult for donors and — and someone like myself to try and raise money for him in a super PAC,” Ed Rollins, who formed a pro-Trump super PAC that has failed to gain traction, said Tuesday during an appearance on Fox Business Network. “People say 'Well, he says he can buy it himself. Let him put the money in.’”

In the month since he became the presumptive GOP nominee, Trump raised just $3.1 million; by comparison, Mitt Romney raised more than $23 million in the month after he clinched the nomination in 2012. Of the $6.7 million Trump’s campaign has spent, roughly 20 percent (CNN says 17 percent) has gone to Trump-owned businesses. Continuing to rely almost completely on his large media presence, Trump has spent almost nothing to date on data programs, television advertising and direct mail. Trump and the RNC are holding a joint fundraiser in New York City on Tuesday night, but only a fraction of the money raised will go to his campaign.

"Two things are giving donors hesitation: that he's not doing well now, and that he's rich and can self-fund," said Charlie Black, an experienced GOP operative in Washington and Manafort’s former partner. "And they haven't had a professional fundraising operation so far. But he's cleared the deck of the divided leadership, and now [Manafort] has the clear path to go and professionalize it."

"He's got to make a bunch of phone calls, and he's got to staff up," said Austin Barbour, who served as a national finance chair for Romney's 2012 campaign. "Talking isn't going to get him there, he's got to do it. And he's the tip of the spear when it comes to helping Republicans with the down-ballot campaigns."

Just weeks ahead of the convention in Cleveland, Trump’s woes have only added to Republicans’ concerns about his candidacy and the negative impact he could have on down-ballot races. And the presumptive nominee has yet to completely quiet chatter about the party’s nuclear option: changing RNC rules a week ahead of the convention in order to unbind the delegates on a first ballot to allow them to nominate someone other than Trump.

Gov. Scott Walker, the former candidate who has hinted he’d be open to receiving the nomination in such a circumstance, said Tuesday the delegates “should be able to vote the way they see fit.”