--- ---  # Donald Trump Campaign Tension Echoes Reagan White House Dynamic ## Video: Trump on the Attack [Watch (HLS stream): Trump on the Attack](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VeRjnf0d.m3u8) (2:00)  _Published 2016-04-25. Donald Trump seemed clearly rankled Monday by the decision of rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich to team up against him, spending much of the beginning of his rally in Rhode Island bashing his opponents rather than promoting himself._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 26, 2016 6:21 PM UTC  Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at West Chester University in West Chester, Penn., on April 25, 2016. Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at West Chester University in West Chester, Penn., on April 25, 2016.Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 26, 2016 6:21 PM UTC Reports on Tuesday [suggested](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/donald-trump-paul-manafort-corey-lewandowski-222430) that Republican candidate Donald Trump is [facing](http://time.com/4307723/why-donald-trump-stopped-acting-presidential/) a particular dilemma within his campaign: keep doing what he’s been doing, or rein in his remarks to seem more “presidential” as the general election season approaches? Within his camp, those two sides are represented by adviser Paul Manafort (who has reassured some Republican donors that Trump would tamp down his act) and campaign manager Corey Lewandowski (who is perhaps best known for [an alleged physical altercation with a reporter](http://time.com/4275043/donald-trump-campaign-manager-charged-battery-reporter/) in March). While Trump’s campaign may be unique, the two sides in this debate have been seen before. In fact, it was Republican idol Ronald Reagan who perhaps best exemplified the opposing forces of presidential-ness and personality. In 1982 and ’83, in the Reagan White House, the more politically minded Manafort side was represented by Chief of Staff James Baker. Meanwhile, National Security Adviser William P. Clark was the Lewandowski of the situation, whose approach was at the time [summed up](http://time.com/vault/issue/1983-08-08/page/36/) with four simple words: “let Reagan be Reagan.” In general, “being Reagan” meant adherence to the President’s harder-line “raw, conservative instincts,” as TIME [put it](http://time.com/vault/issue/1983-08-08/page/36/). [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) Clark and Baker both eventually left those positions—which is perhaps where a lesson for today can be seen. The conflict between pragmatism and conservatism continued to play out for the rest of the Reagan presidency, with or without the men who had once symbolized those two opposing urges. There would always be a group that wanted the President to compromise, and there would be always be a group that saw any compromise as a betrayal. In 1987, [for example](http://time.com/vault/issue/1987-09-14/page/35/), TIME reported that — in the wake of Reagan’s tentative approval of a peace plan for the then-ongoing conflict in Nicaragua — conservative Reagan boosters “complain that the Administration more than ever is filled with mushy compromisers who will not let Reagan be Reagan.” Should Donald Trump make it all the way to the White House in this year’s election, there’s no reason not to predict that same dynamic repeating itself. The idea of letting a candidate be himself is not just about winning an election or keeping speeches on-message. The people who have come to support Trump for the rhetoric he has used thus far would be disappointed by any attempt to back off on his “being himself,” regardless of which Trump is the best representation of his true ideas. And the people who disagree with him but hope to keep his party in power will keep pushing for him to change. Donald Trump Campaign Tension Echoes 'Let Reagan Be Reagan' ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4308145/donald-trump-ronald-reagan-echo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4308145/donald-trump-ronald-reagan-echo/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Campaign Tension Echoes Reagan White House Dynamic","datePublished":"2016-04-26T18:21:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:55:43.772Z","description":"Is this the 2016 candidate's 'Let Reagan Be Reagan' moment?","url":"https://time.com/4308145/donald-trump-ronald-reagan-echo/","keywords":["politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80f5657d0eb3499f/698890b2196cf46d4303b5b7/trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80f5657d0eb3499f/698890b2196cf46d4303b5b7/trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump","caption":"Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Holds Pennsylvania Campaign Rally","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4308145/donald-trump-ronald-reagan-echo/","name":"Donald Trump Campaign Tension Echoes Reagan White House Dynamic"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Trump on the Attack","description":"Donald Trump seemed clearly rankled Monday by the decision of rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich to team up against him, spending much of the beginning of his rally in Rhode Island bashing his opponents rather than promoting himself.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/VeRjnf0d/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-04-25T18:53:35.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VeRjnf0d.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4308145/donald-trump-ronald-reagan-echo/","duration":"PT2M","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4308145/donald-trump-ronald-reagan-echo/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```