--- title: Donald Trump: Acting Presidential, and Not Presidential description: Watch a video of Donald Trump swinging between acting presidential and being the brash, often-inappropriate candidate he loves to be. canonical: https://time.com/4321038/donald-trump-acting-presidential-video/ author: Joyce Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-06T15:53:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:11.238Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Donald Trump Act Presidential—And Not og:description: He's been shifting between two very different styles lately. og:url: https://time.com/4321038/donald-trump-acting-presidential-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta34e749b7669ab73/698891f50b72e351ba6e93e4/trump5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2600 og:image:height: 1463 og:image:alt: GOP 2016 Trump America Trumped og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Donald Trump Act Presidential—And Not twitter:description: He's been shifting between two very different styles lately. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta34e749b7669ab73/698891f50b72e351ba6e93e4/trump5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Donald Trump Act Presidential—and Not Presidential > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Joyce Lee](https://time.com/author/joyce-lee/) ## Joyce Lee May 6, 2016 3:53 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts to a song during a campaign rally at the Indiana Theater in Terre Haute, Ind. on May 1, 2016. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts to a song during a campaign rally at the Indiana Theater in Terre Haute, Ind. on May 1, 2016. Seth Perlman—AP by [Joyce Lee](https://time.com/author/joyce-lee/) ## Joyce Lee May 6, 2016 3:53 PM UTC Will Donald Trump change? Now that the New York real estate mogul and former reality TV star is the presumptive Republican nominee, many pundits have wondered whether he’ll tone down his brash campaign approach to a tone more typical of past candidates. Or maybe a little of both. [As TIME’s Philip Elliott reports](http://time.com/4319112/donald-trump-wins-the-nomination-now-what/) in this week’s magazine: “How Trump comports himself in the coming six months before Election Day stands to either remake U.S. politics or splinter an already deeply divided country. … He is at work on speeches detailing his ideas on trade, economic development and the law. But he isn’t going to give up his rowdy rallies, which he clearly enjoys, or his fringe theories about Bill and Hillary Clinton’s past, which he bets will help him narrow the gap.” This dual nature of Trump’s candidacy is on display every time he takes the stage as he oscillates between what he likes to call being “presidential” and flouting political correctness. 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