Donald Trump is planning to start using speechwriters and teleprompters, and giving policy speeches in the coming weeks, as the New York real estate developer shifts to prepare for a general election campaign.
“The campaign is evolving and transitioning, and so am I,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal Tuesday. He said this shift was necessary because “I’m not going to blow it.”
The Trump campaign has been re-organized in the past weeks since bringing Paul Manafort on-board in late March. The experienced political consultant was initially hired to manage the campaign’s delegate wrangling operations, but now he has a much broader role. Manafort hired Rick Wiley, the former campaign manager for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential bid, and got the campaign a California state director.
Corey Lewandowski, still the campaign manager, had previously ran the campaign under the mantra “let Trump be Trump.” Lewandowski is now overseeing the “day-to-day operations,” the Journal reports.
The campaign is not just focused on winning large state-wide totals in elections anymore. Since Manafort has come on-board they have looked to win delegates at the congressional level as well. The rallies in New York were planned to occur in districts more favorable to this effort.
He has loaned a little over $20 million so far to his campaign, and in the upcoming two months he plans to spend $40 million. He told the Journal, “I’ll spend what it takes.”
It isn’t only Manafort who has called for the campaign to change its operations. Trump’s son Donald Jr. said that just as in business you adapt to “market conditions,” and that the campaign would need to adjust to “political realities.”
Throughout the campaign Trump has given speeches off-the-cuff with the help of just a few handwritten notes. He now plans to hire a speechwriter and has installed a teleprompter in his office to help him learn to use it.
He has used a teleprompter and a speechwriter once this campaign. Trump’s widely applauded March speech at AIPAC was delivered with the help of a teleprompter and written with the advice of his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump plans to give a foreign policy speech on April 27 and plans to give another one on jobs. He will not change his style and rhetoric at his massive rallies, however. “I’m still the same candidate,” Trump said. He added, “can you imagine how upset my supporters would be after waiting for hours?”