Believe it or not, Donald Trump thinks he’s already “softened” up his rhetoric for the general election.
Yes, despite getting into a public fight with a Gold Star family and rambling about “Second Amendment people” stopping Hillary Clinton from appointing judges once she’s president, Trump is insisting that he’s toned things down since the Republican primary.
In an interview with Time, Trump talked about how much he’s gotten softer during his “pivot” to the general election — and he’s not at all happy about it.
“I am listening to so-called experts to ease up the rhetoric, and so far, I’m liking the way I ran in the primaries better,” said the Republican presidential nominee. “Personally, I don’t know if that’s what the country wants. When we’re having heads chopped off in the Middle East, when things are happening that have never happened before in terms of the atrocities, in terms of giving $400 million in cash and all other things, I think maybe they want tougher rhetoric.”
You don’t even need to read between the lines to see that Trump is just itching to turn things up a notch because he thinks the general electorate is really pumped up to see him mock disabled reporters, insinuate opponents’ parents might have helped kill President Kennedy, and insult female debate moderators for having blood coming out of their “wherever.”
When asked by Time whether he intended to revert to this winning form, Trump wouldn’t commit either way.
“I’m not agreeing or disagreeing with anybody,” he said. “I think I may do better the other way. They would like to see it be a little bit different, a little more modified. I don’t like to modify. But that’s what I’ve done. We’ll see where it takes me.”
Later in the interview, Trump also said that “there’s always a chance that I will do that and can go back to” the style of campaigning that won him the GOP primaries.
