Trump: ‘I Want to Be Myself’ — ‘It Got Me Here’

Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was asked by show host Bret Baier about a perceived pivot to a “more controlled presidential candidate.”

Trump dismissed that perception and said he wanted to be himself. He also added he would “probably” use a teleprompter for his convention speech next week in Cleveland.

Partial transcript as follows:

BAIER: You’re giving speeches off the teleprompter more. Some people have noticed that your tone has changed a little bit. The Twitter kind of back and forth has slowed a little bit. Is this the turn that everybody talks about that you’re pivoting now to become this kind of more controlled presidential candidate?

TRUMP: I’ll give you a terrible answer. I don’t think so. I want to be myself. You know, it got me here. I made a speech last night, tremendous crowd, you saw it in Indiana. Tremendous crowd, the level of enthusiasm. If I ever walked into that crowd of 8,000-9,000 people and had a teleprompter in front of me and read a speech, I think I would probably lose most of them by the time I was finished. I like doing the teleprompter, it works for me on detailed speeches. Fortunately, I have the kind of memory where I can do it without teleprompters —

BAIER: Are you going to use a teleprompter at the convention?

TRUMP: A lot of people have asked me that question. They said boy, that could be a great speech, but I’m probably going to use a teleprompter.

BAIER: What is the story you’re going to tell at the convention?

TRUMP: I’m going to tell a law and order story. I am the law and order candidate. The problem with the police is one incident happens, it’s bad, and its broadcast all over the world for weeks and weeks. Hundreds of thousands of things that they do that are incredible, nobody talks about, you know? We’re going to have to talk about them. I find it very interesting, the media can distort images and can distort pictures. I’ve never seen people really fight back against the media, certainly not like I fight back against the media. This whole “never Trump” movement is nonsense.

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