A different kind of Trump goes on display

The pork sausage was a sign that this was going to be different. Or at least, that it was meant to be.

Like a grocery store employee in front of a concession stand, Donald Trump stood framed by the everyday items of an American shopping basket.

Breakfast oats. Bread. Butter. The sausage.

In a 45-minute-long pre-prepared speech at his Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey, his remarks appeared designed to signal a shift away from the usual personal attacks on his opponent.

Reading off a piece of paper – itself something of departure from his normally freewheeling style – this was instead an attempt to focus on policy and, somewhat like the ground coffee beans that remained in shot throughout, in granular detail too.

The former president listed a barrage of what he said were price increases under the current administration. Flour up 38%, he said. Eggs, 46%.

Sure, he questioned whether Kamala Harris loves her country, impugned her intelligence and accused her of being a “communist” multiple times.

But, compared to what has come before, this was far less heavy on the insults and it will have been music to the ears of at least some senior Republican figures.

The concerns in Republican circles about Trump’s struggle to adjust to the challenge presented by Ms Harris have been mounting ever since she took over as the presumptive Democrat nominee.

“The winning formula for President Trump is very plain to see,” Kellyanne Conway, once his campaign manager and close advisor, recently told Fox News.

“It’s fewer insults, more insights and that policy contrast.”

Others too have cringed as Trump has attacked Ms Harris over her racial identity or made bizarre claims that she was engaged in deep-fake fraud over the size of the crowds at her rallies.

“So stupid,” Megyn Kelly, the conservative commentator and former Fox News host, said in response to the latter tactic on her radio show.

“Just focus on the damn border!”

That’s a piece of advice, it has to be said, he doesn’t have too much trouble following.

Although his remarks began with a promise to focus on some “big facts and very substantial truths”, as so often they more than strained the definition of both.

He claimed, once again, that some countries are emptying out their prisons and “insane asylums” to flood the US with illegal migrants, despite there being no data on the prison history of migrants crossing the border or their mental health status.

And he repeated – without any evidence and contrary to government data – that 100% of new jobs have gone to migrants, while regurgitating false claims about having won the 2020 election.