Trump camp says persona is 'an act' as it woos GOP insiders

Newly hired Trump campaign staffers and former rival Ben Carson met
party activists to talk their candidate’s strategy to beat Hillary Clinton

Ben Jacobs in Hollywood, Florida
Friday 22 April 2016 06.59 BST

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.

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.

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.

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