A Trump Reboot? We've Seen This Movie Before.

The Trumpkins are abuzz that the past week was a great one for The Donald. He shook up his campaign, brought in new blood, and acted more presidential.

That roughly describes last week, when Trump brought in a new campaign manager and CEO, Paul Manafort resigned as campaign chairman, and the candidate himself visited the site of the Louisiana flooding and offered a vague, general apology for some of his past statements. But it could also describe the end of June—when campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was fired, Trump finally began to back off from his racist attacks on Judge Curiel, and promised a more presidential attitude, including additional major policy speeches with TelePrompters. Or it could describe late March, when Trump first hired Manafort, gave the first of his major, TelePrompter speeches, and again promised a more presidential version of himself going forward.

The point is that at this late stage in the campaign, only Trump’s most dedicated followers are still gullible enough to believe a real pivot to a winning, presidential Trump is in the offing. The day after the Republican National Convention, Trump supporters were again loudly proclaiming a campaign reboot, ready to take on Hillary Clinton in the fall. Not even a week later Trump began attacking Gold Star parents, then continued his assaults on fellow Republicans, all while largely ignoring Clinton. And the story for the Trump campaign only went downhill from there.

Sure, the campaign brought aboard new people, although “new” is not the same as “different” or “better”. Sure, Trump offered some kind of apology for past statements, although it had more of an air of “I’m sorry you’re offended.” And sure, Trump visited Louisiana, which was—I’ll admit—much more presidential than vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard, like Obama.

But we’ve long past the point where Trump can be trusted to truly reboot, or pivot, or reset for long. He even flip-flops about flip-flopping, going between “I’ll be so presidential, you’ll be bored”, and “I am who I am, and that’s not going to change.” Nothing Trump does or says is permanent, whether his pivots, positions on the issues, or multiple marriages.

I give this latest reset one week. Two at most.