With rare humility, Donald Trump concedes he could come up short
13 Aug 2016 11:00 PM GMT
In a rare show of humility by the boastful billionaire, Donald Trump is acknowledging that his presidential campaign faces challenges and could ultimately fall short.
The Republican presidential nominee is straying from his signature bravado as he campaigns in the battleground state of Florida, even telling a gathering of evangelical ministers on Thursday he’s “having a tremendous problem in Utah.” The same day, the reality show star acknowledged that his lack of political correctness could cost him the election if Americans reject his blunt approach.
“We’re having a problem,” Trump told the ministers, adding that the next president could get to nominate up to five high-court justices. “It could cost us the Supreme Court.”
After trouncing 16 challengers in the Republican primary, Trump is encountering worrying signs as his campaign moves into the general election. Democrat Hillary Clinton’s lead over Trump in national polls has widened in recent days, while a growing number of fellow Republicans have declared they won’t support their own party’s nominee.
Trump’s exercise in self-awareness is a marked departure from his usual tenor on the campaign trail, where for months at rallies he would tick through poll numbers showing him winning as if they were sports scores of his favorite team. “We’re going to win so big,” Trump told a roaring crowd one month ago at the Republican National Convention. Yet on Thursday, Trump was reduced to citing a poll that actually showed him a few points behind Clinton and arguing the race between them was close. Asked how he planned to reverse Clinton’s advantage, Trump said he simply planned to do “the
same thing I’m doing right now.”
Clinton knocks ‘outlandish Trumpian ideas’ in speech
Her political fortunes flourishing, Hillary Clinton attempted to undercut Donald Trump’s claim to working-class voters on Thursday, portraying her Republican rival as untrustworthy on economic issues and pushing policies that would only benefit the super-wealthy himself included.
The Democratic presidential nominee sought to seize momentum as Republicans, including Trump, struck an almost defeatist note about their Election Day chances. As Republican leaders sounded alarms about Trump’s unconventional approach, Clinton attacked what she dubbed “outlandish Trumpian ideas” that have been rejected by both parties.
“Based on what we know from the Trump campaign, he wants America to work for him and his friends, at the expense of everyone else,” she said after touring a Michigan manufacturing facility.
Appearing in a county known for so-called Reagan Democrats (working-class Democrats who voted Republican in the 1980s), Clinton tried to win back some of the blue-collar voters who have formed the base of her rival’s support, making the case that she offers a steadier roadmap for economic growth and prosperity.
Next Story
