GOP pollster Frank Luntz: Trump needs to stop behaving like ‘petulant child’

Republican pollster Frank Luntz said early Friday that if he was to give advice to former President Trump, he would tell him “to stop behaving like a petulant child.”

“If I were advising him, which I am not, I would look him straight in the eye and say, ‘Sir, you need to shut up. You need to stop behaving like a petulant child, and start focusing on what the American people want, in a way that they want to hear it,’” Luntz said on “CNN This Morning” with anchor Kasie Hunt.

Republicans have pushed Trump to focus on policy differences between him Vice President Harris after weeks of personal attacks against his Democratic rival. Harris has gained momentum and sparked excitement in the Democratic Party after weeks of uncertainty over whether President Biden would step away from the 2024 presidential race.

“Look, if I yell at you every time you have me on, you’ll stop having me on and you’ll stop listening,” Luntz said on CNN. 

“Trump doesn’t understand that. People have to tell him the truth, because at this point she’s got her convention bounce before the convention, and I think Harris could have a 5- or 6-point lead coming out of that convention if Donald Trump continues to behave the way that he has,” he added, in a clip highlighted by Mediaite.

Harris has been gaining on Trump in recent polling. In an average of national polls from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, she is leading Trump by 2 points, with the vice president garnering 49 percent support to the former president’s 47 percent. Recent polling from The New York Times/Siena College found Harris 4 points ahead of Trump in the important battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on Luntz’s remarks.