I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but Trump has been sounding a bit, well, normal on the trail recently. He took a relatively moderate stance on abortion regulations, he’s not saying much about Gaza, and he’s standing behind Mike Johnson in spite of the Ukraine aid bill. Trump always feeds red meat to the base and never moves to the center, so what’s going on here? Is he actually becoming a more conventional GOP candidate?
I think the polls have convinced him that he blundered into a successful strategy by refusing to participate in the debates. The less he speaks about issues in public, and the more moderate he sounds when he does, the better he comes across to swing voters who are unhappy with the status quo.
Of course, his legal problems may blow this strategy to smithereens. So might his lack of oral discipline. And don’t expect the moderate version of Trump to remain in place if he actually wins the election. Once given the opportunity to exercise absolute power, he will use it, because if there is one thing we know for sure about the man on golf cart, it is that he considers himself to be above the law.