advisers to Donald Trump pledged to Republican Party leaders on Thursday that the New York billionaire would adopt a more presidential demeanor after weeks of bashing the party Chris Conley Rush Jersey , and urged them to unify behind the political outsider.
Trump's representatives, including newly recruited senior advisers Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley, met with leaders of the Republican National Committee behind closed doors at a conference room at an oceanside resort hotel where the party is holding a three-day meeting.
Over shrimp, crab legs and an open bar, the advisers expressed confidence that Trump would win the Republican presidential nomination without the party having to resort to a contested convention in Cleveland in July Mitch Morse Rush Jersey , according to three attendees.
Trump, 69, needs 1,237 delegates to win the nomination outright for the Nov. 8 election. Rivals Ted Cruz, 45 Chris Jones Rush Jersey , and John Kasich, 63, are trying to stop him from getting a majority of delegates, so they can force a contested convention in which one of them could emerge as the nominee.
Party leaders told reporters after the session that Trump's envoys said Trump, as the Republican nominee Kareem Hunt Rush Jersey , would be able to expand the electoral map to include several states Republicans have not won in a general election in a generation.
One attendee, South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Matt Moore, said the Trump team told the group it expected Trump to have a ""more presidential demeanor"" over the next few weeks.In recent weeks, Trump has railed against the party for developing what he said was a ""rigged"" system in which Cruz was able to amass delegates in Colorado without Republicans actually voting.
Moore said he was taking a wait-and-see attitude on whether Trump would change. ""The proof is in the pudding,"" he said.
Manafort told reporters after the meeting that ""we talked about how we're going to expand the map.""
As for how to improve Trump's negative image held by some voters Tanoh Kpassagnon Rush Jersey , Manafort said: ""We just have to present him in a way that shows all sides of Donald Trump.""
'STOP FIGHTING AMONG OURSELVES'
Former presidential candidate Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who has endorsed Trump, also addressed the group. Talking to reporters as he walked into the meeting, Carson said his message was that Republicans should ""stop fighting among ourselves"" and unite behind Trump.