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News Tip: ‘Burden Now On Trump to Unify the Party,’ Expert Says

Former White House security adviser says the presumptive Republican nominee needs to win over critics.

  • Quotes: "Everyone seems to be looking at foreign policy elites to see if they will move toward Donald Trump. It may be more interesting to see if Donald Trump moves toward foreign policy elites. His campaign has already signaled that they want to do this,” says Peter Feaver, a professor of political science and public policy at Duke University and a former national security adviser to President George W. Bush.“And while his set-piece speech last week was anything but a model of coherence and clarity, it clearly wanted to be viewed as a fresh start since it pointedly avoided some of his favorite stump-speech lines that foreign policy experts have pointed out as especially ill-conceived: Trying to get the Mexican government to pay for the wall and browbeating the military to obey unlawful orders.” “Trump will have to move a lot further than that to win over the critics he has mocked and denounced throughout the campaign this year. But I expect him to try, because the truth is he needs them more than they need him. Many Trump critics will be content to sit this election out and some may even support Sen. Clinton.  The burden is now on Trump to unify the party."

 

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Note to editors: Other Duke experts on politics and public policy can be found at https://dukecampaignstop2016.org/experts/. ###