Inside a Kinder, Gentler Trump’s New York Victory Party
Inside Trump Tower’s ornate lobby Tuesday night, a Megyn Kelly-anchored Fox News program is turned all the way up, and the grand escalators are turned off — both signs Trump’s learned a thing or two since he kicked off his bid for the Republican nomination in this very spot ten months ago.
Before Trump’s New York primary victory speech, there’s no slow, awkward escalator ride for the losers and haters to ridicule endlessly in the coming months. There’s also no loser-hater name-calling, as Kelly — whom Trump made peace with in a secretive meeting in this building last week — notes on her program later in the evening. “You heard Donald Trump tonight sounding, you tell me: more presidential?” She asks a guest. “‘Sen. Cruz,’ not ‘Lyin’ Ted’ — did you notice that?”
Kelly isn’t wrong. Tuesday night is the debut of a kindler, gentler Donald Trump. He strides, relaxed and confident, into the lobby, Melania by his side, Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” on the loudspeaker, to deliver a brief and uncontroversial set of remarks. He thanks his home-state supporters repeatedly, only gently chides the media covering the event, takes the most casual of swipes at the Republican Party and Ted Cruz, and leaves the podium without lobbing a single outrage-inspiring comment, insult or accusation.
That is all by design, Trump’s new chief strategist, Paul Manafort, tells a tangle of reporters jostling to speak with him after his candidate’s victory speech. “He understands,” Manafort says, when asked about the difference in Trump’s tone Tuesday, but he refuses to take credit for any change. “He’s setting the tone of his campaign. We’re helping to frame it, but he’s setting the tone. I think he’s disciplined. I mean, I really do. You heard him tonight.”
A veteran Republican operative who helped coordinate President Gerald Ford’s successful effort to stave off a convention-floor challenge by Ronald Reagan in 1976, Manafort joined the campaign just three weeks ago, reportedly supplanting embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. (Lewandowski is present as ever on Tuesday, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Trump’s adult children during the speech.)
The single change Manafort cops to is in Trump’s campaign’s strategy. “What we’re doing now is we’re putting strategy together where we’re not just trying to win a state, like in New York. [When] the results are done, [you’ll see] we didn’t just win a big victory in New York state, we won a big victory in all of the congressional districts as well. We focused on that as an organization,” he says, “and we’re going to focus on that in the upcoming states as well.”