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Trump: I have no plans to change strategy

by Jesse Byrnes - 08/09/16 11:05 AM ET

Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed calls to change his strategy despite falling behind Hillary Clinton in recent polls.

“I think that my temperament has gotten me here,” Trump said during a phone interview on Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria.”

{mosads}“We beat a lot of people in the primaries and now we have one person left, and we’re actually doing pretty well there, but we’ll see how it all comes out,” the Republican presidential nominee said.

“I certainly don’t think it’s appropriate to start changing all of a sudden when you’ve been winning,” Trump said. “I think it’s going to work out well.”

Trump has fallen behind Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, in a number of recent polls both nationally and in battleground states following his feud with the parents of a slain American Muslim soldier.

Trump also reversed course last week and endorsed Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) after initially refusing to do so and then delivered a carefully scripted economic speech on Monday.

Clinton leads Trump by 7.5 points in the RealClearPolitics national polling index, with multiple surveys showing her ahead by double digits.

Asked Tuesday about his strategy to cut into Clinton’s lead and regain a footing in the presidential race, Trump said, “I think it’s just steadiness, and I think it’s just doing what I’m doing.”

He pointed to his feud with 50 Republican national security experts, who warned the real estate mogul would jeopardize the nation’s security, as evidence of his combative campaign strategy working.

“This is the way I won in the primaries. I mean, I won the primaries by fighting all of these insiders,” Trump said.

Trump continued to push back against those GOP officials, who blasted him in an open letter on Monday. Trump said they “don’t feel relevant” and are trying to get “publicity.”

“I’d like to speak to a new group, because the old group is not doing it,” he stated.

Tags 2016 presidential election Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Paul Ryan