So Donald Trump is ‘a lot different’ now? Sure he is - till his next major flip-flop | Opinion

Editor’s note: Contributing columnist David Mastio is covering the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee for McClatchy Opinion.

Donald Trump says he’s changed since a bullet came within inches of taking his life in the Saturday fusillade from a wannabe assassin. Things are going to be “a lot different,” the Republicans’ newly-official presidential candidate says, “This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together.”

Talking to delegates at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, there’s an interesting disconnect between the changing Trump to be revealed in his Thursday night speech and his most passionate supporters who’ve traveled across the country to give him their blessing. They’re not looking for change.

Oh, he could “give up his tougher rhetoric,” David Farrow, a delegate from outside Pensacola, Florida, told me. “He’s experienced the hand of God, but I don’t want him to change. He’s the first man since Ronald Reagan to fulfill his promises.”

Some even scoff at a rhetorical tweak. “Change? Change from what?” says Shawn McAnelly who hails from southwest Texas, “Telling the truth? I am not here to hire a priest.”

The feeling is universal among delegate after delegate I talk to. “If someone shot me in the head, I’d probably change, too,” says Vonda Wiedmer from Green, Kansas. “But, boy, I really like the whole Donald Trump now.”

The irony is that the celebrity Donald they like so much has always been about change. In fact, that is part of his appeal across a broad swath of the party. He is everything to everyone.

Take his journey, er, position on deporting undocumented immigrants. NBC News reports it began in August 2015 with “a detailed, sprawling immigration plan … Build the wall, make Mexico pay for it, deport criminal aliens, enhance penalties for overstaying visas, triple the number of ICE officers, pause immigration to try and employ unemployed Americans, cut worker visas and more.” There was talk of a “deportation force.”

Even before he won the presidency. Trump told The New York Times he’d be “flexible” on deporting the 11 million undocumented immigrants. He told Bloomberg News he’d have “the biggest heart” for immigrants. In a Fox News town hall, he said he was open to “softening” his position. On and on, the dodging and weaving went. You might even call it change. Eventually, everyone could see their views in Trump, whether xenophobic, xenocompasionate, or in between.

Once he got into office the change continued. Deportation force? Never happened. Mexicans paying for the wall? Nope. Build more than a little wall? Nope, and not without some unconstitutional financial shenanigans to pay for it. At some point, there was more change than plan. And at the end of the day, Donald Trump deported undocumented immigrants at a slower pace than Barack Obama, the son of an immigrant president he replaced.

Donald Trump support comes from the audacity of what he says more than the reality of what he does.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows Trump’s history. Over his lifetime, he changed his party ID five times, including time as a Democrat, a member of a third party and as an independent before settling on life as a Republican, according to The Smoking Gun, which has the receipts.

Before his Supreme Court nominees cut down Roe v. Wade, he was a Planned Parenthood donor. You know Planned Parenthood, the government-funded organization that commits more abortions a year than anyone else.

For Pete’s sake, before Donald Trump and his fans chanted, “Lock her up!” Trump wanted Hillary Clinton to come to his wedding so much he gave the Clinton Foundation $100,000. That’s some change.

Trying to use facts to change minds about Trump is like using spaghetti to chop down a tree. Already Trump’s most ardent supporters are wrapping their minds around a new “new” Trump for however long it lasts.

“It’s hard to imagine that a near-death experience … is not going to change you. We’ve already seen a more disciplined and focused Trump,” Kurt Schlichter, an influential Townhall columnist and Los Angeles lawyer told me.

“People who believe the caricature of Donald Trump have had trouble accepting that … but his supporters understand and support him even more.”

That support exists — as his most recent flip-flops on abortion attest — whatever Trump changes into Thursday night.

David Mastio, a former editor and columnist for USA Today, is a regional editor for The Center Square and a regular Star Opinion correspondent. Follow him on X: @DavidMastio or email him at dmastio1@yahoo.com