Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump tried to change the focus of his message from “me” to “we” Saturday, just days after a majority of voters labeled him “arrogant” in a Quinnipiac University poll.
The outspoken billionaire arrived in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday for a campaign rally where he continued to build on his remarks earlier in the week to voters in Iowa and South Carolina.
“This is a movement,” Trump reportedly told the members of a conservative grassroots group called the National Federation of Republican Assemblies.
“I don’t want it to be about me,” he added. “This is about common sense. It’s about doing the right thing.”
Trump told voters in the Hawkeye State Tuesday that the “Summer of Trump” is meaningless unless he wins the GOP nomination and eventually, the presidency.
“We have to win both the nomination and beat Hillary [Clinton] — or whoever it is,” he said. “We have to incentivize people, we have to give people spirit.”
In a rare moment of humility Saturday, the bombastic New York billionaire emphasized how important it was for him to earn their support.
“Normally I wouldn’t say this, but I need your frickin’ votes, you understand that?” Trump said.
The ex-reality TV show host has ferociously attacked veteran journalists and the mainstream media for their “unfair” coverage of him during previous campaign appearances. But on Saturday, he blamed the media for contributing to unrest and declining law and order in the U.S.
“We have to be tough, we have to be smart,” he said. “I know cities where police are afraid to even talk to people.”
According to Politico, Trump acknowledged the existence of “disgusting” and “horrible” incidents involving police and unarmed black Americans before declaring that “99.9 percent” of law enforcement behave appropriately.
“The problem is the good work doesn’t get shown on television,” he said, to which someone in the crowd shouted “the criminal media.”
“People in this country are smart [because] they don’t believe a lot of what they see in the media,” Trump added.
Trump’s visit to Tennessee Saturday marked the fourth appearance from a GOP candidate in the state since the beginning of August. He currently leads the Republican field among primary voters with 23.5 percent nationally according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling average.
