Donald Trump Says He'll "Reject Hatred and Bigotry and Oppression in All Its Forms"
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has tanked in the polls in recent weeks under the possibly insurmountable weight of all the constituencies he has offended during his campaign, is now trying to sell a different version of himself to the public.
In a statement released on Facebook Tuesday evening, Trump, or one of his staffers, wrote, "This is my pledge to the American people: as your President I will be your greatest champion. I will fight to ensure that every American is treated equally, protected equally, and honored equally."
"We will reject bigotry and hatred and oppression in all its forms, and see a new future built on our common culture and values as one American people," Trump added.
In a subsequent post, Trump said he would oppose "the ideology of Radical Islam" and "speak out against the oppression of women, gays and people of different beliefs."
To be clear, this is the same Trump who insulted the Pakistani-American family of a deceased U.S. soldier, has regularly engaged with neo-Nazi and white supremacist users on Twitter, insulted various high-profile women with sexist language over the course of his campaign, victim-blamed women experiencing sexual harassment, alienated the black electorate and promised to build a wall on the U.S.'s southern border to keep out Mexican "rapists."
That's not even touching the way the candidate went after his fellow Republicans, and continued to do so until after the primary contests were largely over.
With Trump's favorability rating hovering at just 32.8%, according to an average of polls kept by Real Clear Politics, it looks like the damage has already been inflicted — and thanks to the roughly $2 billion in media air time the real estate billionaire had earned by March 2016, as estimated by the New York Times, it will be very difficult to reverse perceptions about his candidacy this late in the game.