Trump campaign "leaks" story: "It's all been an act."

What are we to make of the Associated Press report that a "leak" from Trump aides revealed that his campaign managers had told Republican party leaders that Trump has been "projecting an image" in the campaign thus far and that "the part he's been playing is now evolving"?   He will now begin to be (or act) more presidential.

Leak, my foot.  I believe that the "leak" was deliberate, a signal to news media that Trump is pivoting to presidential mode -- just in case they missed it.  It's part of a carefully planned strategy by his new campaign manager, Paul Manafort, to convert Trump into a more serious candidate that the establishment can feel more comfortable supporting.   He's quoted as saying: "You'll start to see more depth of the person, the real person. You'll see a real different guy. . . . The part that he's been playing is evolving into the part that now you've been expecting, but he wasn't ready for, because he had first to complete the first phase. The negatives will come down. The image is going to change." 

Which, of course, is exactly what Trump needed and what any good manager would have done some time ago.   Is it too late?    Is it too late to change Trump's image?    Too late to actually change Trump's behavior?

It's a little hard to know what to root for.    Do we want a cleaned-up Donald Trump, who might be more likely to win in November than the unfettered, angry guy?    He's pretty well sewed up the voters who fell in love with that image.   Now if he begins to seem acceptable to the establishment . . . he could be more formidable.

Unless Hillary Clinton can take advantage of the obvious image-manipulation and raise the issue of authenticity.   But, with her own problems with authenticity, how can she play that card without bringing up the "untrustworthy" charge against her?

On the other hand, Ted Cruz would be so much worse than Trump if he won.  Rep. Peter King (R-NY), who is a moderate Republican and not a big fan of either Trump or Cruz, was interviewed on CNN on Friday.    He said:  "I would take Trump over Cruz.   But to be effective in the general election, [Trump] has to show some substance, he has to show that he's gone beyond just the name-calling and the sound bites. . . .  He has to show that he knows what he's talking about."

In answer to why he prefers Trump to Cruz, he said:  "Ted Cruz is a phoney.  I don't trust him.  Donald Trump behind it all is a more reasonable person, and I believe he has enough common sense;   but he has to show that. . . .  Ted Cruz is hopeless;   he's irredeemable."

We'll see.   It looks like the establishment is going to warm to Trump . . . and he will wind up with the nomination -- if he lets his new campaign manager style him and tame him and educate him  and get him as speech writer.

Ralph