One of the most cynical men in America has taken Donald Trump under his wing and warned the bombastic billionaire to straighten up and fly far, far right or risk losing the November presidential election.

Roger Ailes, ousted earlier this summer as head of Fox News following allegations of sexual harassment, is the brains behind Fox's self-aggrandizing "fair and balanced" slogan. Ailes probably has done more to foment political division and lack of civility in this country than anyone else and is now telling his old friend Trump what to do if he really wants to win.

And Trump, apparently, really does want to win.

After news of Ailes advising Trump broke, the often foul-mouthed, off-the-rails tycoon immediately read — actually read — a teleprompter speech in a lily white town near Milwaukee in which he stuck to the conservative script of being tough on "law and order," berating Hillary Clinton and insisting that Democrats merely want to exploit African-Americans.

Next we learned Ailes is forcing Trump to run TV ads, something Trump so far has not wanted to spend money on, preferring free publicity. Ailes was behind the "Morning in America" messaging that got Ronald Reagan reelected. He also helped Richard Nixon get elected and worked to take the patrician edges off George H.W. Bush. He's a best friend of Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York who has become one of Trump's hardest-working surrogates.

Up until now, Trump has refused to listen to Republican graybeards who have said he needs to stay on-message, stop bloviating pure nonsense and vitriol, and keep focused on blasting Clinton. But as his polls plummeted and the pundits began looking at Trump's poor performance among college-educated voters, women, and minorities and in swing states, even Trump began to panic.

This is all of a pattern, folks. Rich, influential Republicans want to win. Trump was flailing. Tired of fretting, the big boys have taken the situation in hand.

Trump also tapped for his team two other friends, Kellyanne Conway, a take-no-prisoners GOP strategist, and Stephen Bannon, the "pit bull" executive chairman of Breitbart News, which long has touted Trump and derided Clinton.

If Trump listens to Ailes, Conway and Bannon, November will be a narrow contest between Trump and Clinton.

Potentially both have a little over 40 percent of the vote just by virtue of being a Democrat and a Republican. So the real fight is over the roughly 13 to 15 percent of undecided independents who really don't like either one of their choices and who are waiting to see if Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson gets 15 percent of the polls to qualify for the all-important debates.

The first debate on Sept. 26, warns Ailes, will be crucial for Trump, who likes to say he needs no debate preparation and that Americans loved his all-over-the-place, domineering style in the Republican debates. Ailes, Conway and Bannon have persuaded Trump that debating Clinton will be a different ballgame and that Trump better learn different rules and behavior. Fast.

Make no mistake, Trump will keep up his coded braying to his followers, assuring them that political incorrectness, sexism, racism and xenophobia are still OK with him. But he will put a fine sugar-coating on his words. And middle-of-the-roaders will begin to convince themselves that Trump isn't so bad after all.

Do not gloat, Democrats. This is not over. In this wacky world of do-overs and second chances and mass manipulation, sow ears are made into silk purses all the time.

Ann McFeatters (amcfeatters@nationalpress.com) is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service.