Trump's changes words not positions. Affecting polls?

AROUND THE BLOCK

News with a Twist

Trump campaign maintains candidate has not shifted position on immigration

Spokesperson says position is the same; words are different

In the continuing controversy over Donald Trump’s ‘softening’ of his stance on immigration, the Trump campaign’s primary spokesperson, Katrina Pierson, defended the candidate by saying, “He hasn’t changed his position on immigration. He’s changed the words that he’s saying.”

Pierson went on to say that “Mr. Trump has a lot of words at his disposal and he intends to use as many of those words as possible to ensure that the American people fully understand his positions on the issues.”

Ms. Pierson would not confirm whether Mr. Trump will not only use all the words he knows in his campaign appearances, but also use those words in any random order he chooses. Nor would she confirm he has enlisted his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared, both Ivy League graduates, to expand his already substantial list of words. 

(In that regard, it is believed that Mr. Trump has not asked his sons Donald Jr. and Eric to get involved in the word expansion project because, according to a campaign spokesman speaking on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak, "Quite frankly, Don Jr. and Eric just don't know that many words.")

But, is Mr. Trump’s use of different words to explain his positions hurting him in the polls, particularly among his most ardent anti-immigration supporters?

Not so, according to his new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, who said that most polls are significantly undercounting Trump’s support.

“Donald Trump performs consistently better in online polling where a human being is not talking to another human being about what he or she may do in the election,” Conway said, going on to say, “It’s because it’s become socially desirable, if you’re a college-educated person in the United States of America, to say that you’re against Donald Trump.”

Conway said she couldn’t discuss exactly how much of the country secretly supports Trump. But, “It’s a project we’re doing internally,” she said. “I call it the undercover Trump voter, but it’s real.”

Independent polling consultant Paul Polansky supported Conway’s position. “Look, Kellyanne might be on to something. I mean, do you really think anyone with a modicum of intelligence would want to admit to another intelligent individual that he was supporting Donald Trump?”