Change angers base and triggers debate -- personality or act?

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Trump campaign promises candidate will change his personality

New campaign chief suggests Trump has been “playing a part”

In a shocking presentation to members of the Republican National Committee at their spring meeting in Hollywood, Florida, Donald Trump's new campaign chief, Paul Manafort, told attendees that Mr. Trump recognized that he needs to "reshape" his persona, intimating that the candidate's style to date basically amounted to an act.

"That's what's important for you to understand: That he gets it, and that the part he's been playing is evolving, " Mr. Manafort said.

Of course, this is not the first time Mr. Trump, or his campaign, has suggested that he would change his personality.

In a February 10 interview with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, Trump claimed, “I will be changing very rapidly. I'm capable of changing to anything I want to change to."

And in January, Mr. Trump, on CBS’ Face the Nation, claimed that he would be a different person if he were elected President.

Reports of a change in Mr. Trump’s personality initiated almost instant, and mostly negative, reaction from rabid Trump supporters who had just voted for him in the New York primary.

“I’m really bummed out by the news that Donald is changing his personality,” said Salvatore “Big Sal” Parmigiana of Glendale Queens. “I voted for him on Tuesday and now I feel that I was sold of bill of goods. I like him just the way he is.”

Added Patsy “Little Pat” Salvatore, “He changes who he is, who we voted for, fugetabouit!”

From a more clinical standpoint, there is some question among experts whether an individual can actually simply say he will change his personality and actually achieve that change.

According to Brian Little, a lecturer in psychology at Cambridge University, speaking of personality, said, “You’re doomed! What you’ve got now — that’s it,”

Little went on to quote William James, the groundbreaking Harvard psychologist who wrote, “In most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.”

But not so fast says famed acting coach and head of the New York School for Political Performance (NYSPP), Stanislaus Poderesky.

“I agree personality change in adults is virtually impossible. But with Donald Trump we’re not talking about personality; we’re talking about acting. And there’s no question Donald is a great actor who, in my opinion, can play any role.”

For his part, Mr. Trump sought to immediately tamp down any sense that he is abandoning what his base loves about him by changing his personality, telling an audience in Pennsylvania that he didn't want to change his persona "quite yet.”

Little, of Cambridge, immediately said "Mr. Trump can say that, but he can't do it. He can't change his personality."

Poderesky, of NYSPP, countered, "He's acting - and here's another great performance. FOUR STARS!!!