Even Fox's Chris Wallace Is Laughing At Pundits Who Claim Trump Is Acting “More Presidential”

Wallace: A Day After Being Praised For Referring To His Opponent As “Senator Cruz” Trump Is “Out On The Trail ... Talking About Lying Ted”

From the April 22 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom

Video file

MARTHA MACCALLUM (HOST): I know you’re going to talk to Paul Manafort this weekend, so obviously you’re going to have a lot of these questions for him, too. But it’s fascinating to watch this, because, you know, the other two guys were there, John Kasich and Ted Cruz. Trump stayed out on the campaign trail. He did a town hall yesterday morning. But his folks were down there lobbying hard to try to convince them that he’s going to play ball. How do you think this is going?

CHRIS WALLACE: Well, not only play ball, but one of the things that Manafort was quoted as saying in that meeting, it was a closed-door meeting, but there’s no such thing as a closed-door meeting now. Somebody record it and gave the audio tape to Associated Press. He said, look, he’s been playing a part out on the campaign trail, but he’s, that’s not really who Donald Trump is. And we’ve been hearing this for a long time that Trump is going to turn and become more presidential, stop the personal attacks, some of the flamboyant language that he uses against other people in the party, including against the party itself. And he’s been getting advice for months on that. And the question is, will Donald Trump listen? I, Paul Manafort I’ve known since the Reagan White House. He’s a very smart guy. But Corey Lewandowski, who was the campaign manager before that, I know was giving the same advice to Trump and Trump wouldn’t listen. Will he listen to Paul Manafort? That’s really the key to all of this. Can it make a difference? Absolutely. And does Trump have to do it? I think, you know, he can stay to his basic positions, whether it’s on immigration or trade or  a lot of the other issues. But he does, it seems to me and to a lot of other people, need to act, you know the phrase, more presidential because at this point a lot of people, according to polls more than 50 percent of Americans, say that they’d be scared if he were president. That’s not a good thing.

MACCALLUM: Right, yeah. It goes to the whole temperament issue.

WALLACE: Exactly.

MACCALLUM: But we got mixed messages yesterday because, you know, we saw what we just played and then last night in Harrisburg here's Donald Trump. 

[...]

He seems to be liberated when he gets out there in front of the crowd and, you know, sort of go back to the it's all crooked stuff. And that's not the song the song they were singing down there in Florida, Chris.

CHRIS WALLACE: Well I've got to laugh at this. Yeah, I've got to laugh at this because on Tuesday when he had his victory speech at Trump Tower after a really terrific victory in New York he said “Senator Cruz,” and everybody, all the pundits were, you know, were examining this saying, and saying, oh, he said Senator Cruz. That's such a huge difference. He's more presidential.

MACCALUM: Right, doesn't seem like it would be such a novel thing to say, does it? 

WALLACE: Right and the next day he's out on the trail in Indiana and he's talking about lying Ted. 

MACCALLUM: I know.

WALLACE: So, you know, that's the real question. Can Trump, he's heard the evidence. One, does he believe it? Does he believe the advice you ought to tone it down and act more presidential? And two, if he does believe it, can he stick to it? And that's a very open question.

MACCALLUM: It was like from the night before he had a bunch of lying Teds that were pent up, that he couldn't get out on and and so he had to let them all out at once yesterday. 

Previously: 

MSNBC’s All In Debunks The Media Myth That Trump Became Presidential After NY Win

The Daily Show's Trevor Noah Mocks The Media For Calling Trump “Presidential” Because He Didn't Insult Someone

VIDEO: Media Repeatedly Praise Donald Trump As “Presidential”