Donald Trump’s convention manager said there’s no reason for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to change his style heading into the general election, saying the billionaire businessman repeatedly defied critics to win the GOP nomination in historic fashion.
“[There is] no reason for Donald Trump to change a thing,” convention manager Paul Manafort said on Wednesday’s “The Kelly File” on Fox News. “I mean, he’s just won a historic race against 16 opponents. He’s now the highest vote-getter in Republican history as far as the primary process is concerned, and he beat the field handily, so there’s nothing for Donald Trump to change.”
Mr. Manafort had been asked about Mr. Trump’s tone and what kind of person people can expect to see now that his pitch will likely need to be tailored to attract more than just Republicans.
“Those critics also said he would never get to 30 percent, or 40 percent, or 50 percent and would never be the nominee,” Mr. Manafort said.
“They don’t understand the Trump phenomenon and they don’t understand that his connection to the people is not being a conventional candidate, but [to be] a candidate who is being honest, and forthright, and talking about the real problems and making clear that they understand that he’s going to bring real solutions — not just Washington talk,” he said.
Mr. Manafort recently told party leaders in Florida that the “part” Mr. Trump had been playing was evolving.
He said Wednesday that the question had actually been focused on the types of environments where Mr. Trump was giving speeches.
“Part of what was reported out was only focusing on the rallies that he was doing. What I was talking about was he was going to start moving into other arenas, other formats,” Mr. Manafort said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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