The Memo: Team Trump denies ‘reset’

President Trump’s aides and allies on Wednesday rejected suggestions that the commander in chief was hitting the reset button with his speech the night before to a joint session of Congress.

“No, it was not a ‘reset’ speech,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer insisted to reporters.

{mosads}“I don’t believe in this ‘pivot’ thing, right?” said Barry Bennett, who worked as a senior adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign and now runs a consultancy firm with Corey Lewandowski, the real estate mogul’s original campaign manager. 

The push seemed like an attempt to deny that serious errors were made in the early days of the Trump White House. 

The 45th president’s first month in office was marked by fights with the media over the attendance at his inauguration; chaos following his controversial executive order on immigration and refugees; and public spats over everything from allegations of migrant-related crime in Sweden to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ratings on “Celebrity Apprentice.”

Yet Trump loyalists argued Tuesday’s speech was not answering a need to turn over a new leaf. 

They said the Trump who started his address by criticizing vandalism at Jewish cemeteries and a suspected hate crime in Kansas City that killed an Indian engineer, and who spoke in measured tones throughout Tuesday’s address, is simply airing a side of his character often seen in private — one just as genuine as his more combative persona.

“Look, there is Donald Trump the public persona and there is the Donald Trump in private. In my experience, the Donald Trump that you see in private is the Donald Trump you saw [Tuesday] night,” said Sam Nunberg, an adviser to the Trump campaign in its earliest days.

Other Trump allies made broadly similar points — though some did at least acknowledge that the president was trying to improve on his earlier performance.

“They are all just getting better at what they do,” said Bennett, referring to the president and his White House team. “It’s a natural growth for someone who has never been in politics in their whole life.”

Media speculation about Trump “pivoting” away from his signature combative style has been rampant since he began running for president. It has always been proven wrong, as Trump has swiftly returned to his aggressive rhetoric and colorful Twitter style, even as he has taken the reins of power. 

The mere possibility of a Trump pivot toward a more mainstream approach has become something of an in-joke, especially in the minds of the president’s opponents. 

The liberal group Media Matters for America sent out an email on Wednesday headlined “Media can’t stop pining for another Trump pivot.” 

The same day, CNN’s coverage of the aftermath of the speech was accompanied by a chyron reading, “Pivot or performance?”

But there is at least some reason to believe this time may be different. 

In a rare show of public humility, Trump graded himself only a  “C or C-plus” for “messaging” during an appearance on “Fox and Friends” broadcast on Fox News Channel on the morning of his big speech. That looked like an acknowledgement that things have to change.

The president has also been grappling with the lowest job approval ratings of any newly inaugurated commander in chief. In the RealClearPolitics average, his performance gets negative reviews from 49.9 percent of adults and a thumbs-up from only 43.8 percent.

Then there is the fact that Trump has received widespread media praise — along with plaudits even from some liberal commentators — for the first time in his presidency. Trump had been “humbled” by the positive reception the address to Congress had received, Spicer said Wednesday.

Among Republicans on Capitol Hill, there is tangible relief that the White House might have decided on a change in tone — even if that optimism is seasoned with some caution as to what Trump might do next.

“There were a lot of people who had been skeptical — both during the campaign and more recently — who last night saw the hope of something happening and saw a partner who we can work with,” said one GOP Hill aide who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

“Everyone is realistic and understands that the president is not going to change his tone overnight,” the aide added. “But, at the same time, we haven’t seen him in that sort of setting and with that sort of tone. It was unlike anything he had done before.”

Nunberg insisted that each “face” of Trump has its political uses.

“The more he lets that guy out, the more I think his numbers will go up,” he said. “But he is also going to be true to himself in being a showman. This is the dilemma for President Trump. Yes, he is our president, he is a chief executive, but he can never be just another politician.”

The relative optimism of Tuesday night’s speech stood in stark contrast to Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration speech, in which he referred to “American carnage” and saw a land where “rusted out factories [are] scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation.” 

But Spicer pushed back even on that widely accepted point on Wednesday.

“I just don’t agree with the characterization of the inaugural,” he told one reporter who alluded to the bleakness of the earlier address. “Each speech has a different audience and a different objective.”

Still, there is no mistaking the White House’s happiness with how Tuesday panned out.

The address has “generated a lot of momentum,” Spicer said.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.