In an effort to save his flagging presidential candidacy, and two days after shaking up his campaign, Donald Trump expressed “regret” for sometimes saying the wrong thing and causing “pain”. I have done that.
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Speaking in Charlotte, North Carolina, Trump continued: “I have done that, and I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain”.
Trump says that, “Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues”.
“Our campaign is about representing the great majority of Americans. who read the newspaper or turn on the TV and don’t hear anyone speaking for them”, Trump said.
Earlier Thursday, Trump moved to invest almost $5 million in battleground state advertising to address daunting challenges in the states that will make or break his White House ambitions.
Mr Trump named Ms Kellyanne Conway, a well-known pollster, as his campaign manager, and Breitbart News executive chairman Mr Steve Bannon as his CEO.
According to the national poll, Trump supporters overwhelmingly believe that life in the country is worse that it was half a century ago “for people like them”, with 81 percent holding such opinion, compared with only 11 percent saying life has gone better.
Later, he made an explicit pitch to African-Americans.
“As you know, I am not a politician”.
Conway said the more disciplined approach by Trump, who has never held elective office, would not mean jettisoning his more off-the-cuff and unpredictable style.
Yet Trump has struggled badly in recent weeks to offer voters a consistent message, overshadowing formal policy speeches with a steady stream of self-created controversies, including a public feud with an American Muslim family whose son was killed while serving in the USA military in Iraq. But a source familiar with political advertising in OH confirmed a Trump campaign purchase – placed by Strategic Media Services of Virginia – of more than $500,000 of airtime this week in stations across the state.
Trump’s advertising plans highlight his shrinking path to the presidency. His first major ad buys shows him focused on more conventional battlegrounds. His biggest single-market investment comes in the Philadelphia area. He has drawn criticism for comments insulting women, Muslims and Mexican immigrants and for a sometimes dark and pessimistic vision of a struggling United States that has lost its way. Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party have taken African-American votes totally for granted.
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