TRENTON -- GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump will soon undertake another significant shift in the tone and staffing of his White House campaign, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said.

The changes come as rumors that Republican leaders are mounting an "intervention" in an attempt to have Trump to accept professional political advice and embrace a less confrontational campaign style amidst flagging poll numbers and low morale in the party.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has close ties to Trump and is a top advisor on terrorism and national security issues, rejected the description of the shift as the result of an "intervention," as reported by NBC News.

"I wouldn't use the word 'intervention,' because it's a word to describe what's done for drug addicts and alcoholics, and Trump is neither of those two things," Giuliani told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday evening.

"But I think you're going to see Donald Trump campaigning in a somewhat different way going forward -- an evolution that will focus much more on the positive than the negative," he said.

Shortly after the parents of fallen U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan electrified the Democratic National Convention with a damning admonishment to Trump that he had "sacrificed nothing and no one," Trump returned fire.

The mogul claimed last weekend that the grief-stricken mother of the slain Muslim soldier likely "wasn't allowed to have anything to say" as she stood next to her husband as lectured Trump on the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause.

Trump's running mate was forced to do damage control, issuing a statement that Khan was "an American hero," and that he and Trump "cherish his family."

But even for the famously bombastic and iconoclastic Trump, this may have been too much, even for an unusually infuriated Republican electorate.

A week after the Democratic National Convention and two weeks after the Republican National Convention, a Fox News poll released Wednesday found that the Democratic presidential nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was ahead of Trump by 10 points (49 percent to 39 percent).

The Fox poll also found that more than three-quarters of the voters polled were familiar with the exchange between Trump and the Khans, and that nearly 70 percent of those who had described Trump's criticism of the soldier's family as "out of bounds."

And among Republicans, while 40 percent thought Trump's criticism of the Khans was within the bounds of acceptable conduct, even more -- 41 percent -- say it was "out of bounds."

Giuliani has been friends with Trump for nearly 25 years, dating back to his time as a federal prosecutor in New York. The mayor and former Justice Department official appeared as a primetime speaker at the Republican National Convention, giving a fiery polemic praising Trump's support of law and order and police.

He's not only a 2008 GOP presidential candidate, but someone Trump, like Gov. Chris Christie, has frequently sought out for guidance during this campaign. Earlier this spring, Giuliani assembled a panel of top anti-terror advisors whose white paper caused a shift in Trump's blanket Muslim ban. More recently, he's been regularly advising Trump on domestic anti-terror initiatives.

Trump's counterclaims that the elder Khan had "no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim that I have never read the Constitution" left him even more isolated among the GOP establishment and his allies.

Trump's stalwart defender and friend, Christie, called the Khan's loss "unfathomable" and said it gave them "the right to say whatever they want."

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Christie added: "You're not going to find me being critical of Mr. or Mrs. Kahn."

Like Christie, House Speaker Paul Ryan also took special care not to criticize Trump directly, but nonetheless again called out Trump's December call for a ban on Muslim immigration and praised the Khan family.

A religious test for entering our country is not reflective of America's fundamental values. I reject it. pic.twitter.com/DdsYj2XoLS — Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) July 31, 2016

However, U.S. Sen. John McCain did lambaste Trump publicly, saying that winning the party's nomination was "not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us."

The direct reproof by McCain and indirect reproach by Ryan produced the same result from Trump, who declined to endorse either man ahead of their primary elections, even going so far as to praise Ryan's primary challenger, Paul Nehlen, who'd initially defended Trump's attacks on the Khans.

Thanks to @pnehlen for your kind words, very much appreciated. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2016

Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, seemed to break with Trump over his slight of Ryan, just as he'd done when he praised the slain Khan.

"I strongly endorse his re-election," Pence said in an interview with Fox News, calling the House Speaker a "longtime friend" and "a strong conservative leader."

Notwithstanding all the Trump-related drama within the GOP, Giuliani said that the tycoon had learned from the ensuing media storm, and that there was still plenty of time for Trump to refashion his bid. He noted that President Ronald Reagan had fired his campaign manager, John Sears, in 1980, and went on to defeat President Jimmy Carter.

"It's natural for campaigns to go through evolutions and reexaminations," said Giuliani, who explained that while campaign manager Paul Manafort and deputy Michael Glassner were "here to stay," Trump would be making additional senior staff hires shortly to move the remarkably lean campaign towards a more positive message. He declined to identify them by name.

"Trump's not perfect," the former mayor said. "But Republicans need to wake up and say to themselves, 'Do I want another four years of Hillary Clinton?'"

The latest Fox poll, however, suggests a significantly large percentage of Republicans might, in fact, be ready to embrace just that possibility:

Twelve percent of Republicans now back Clinton, more than double the number of Democrats (5 percent) supporting Trump.

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.