Donald Trump has been and always will be mostly liberal. He holds to a pair of conservative principles regarding illegal immigration and nationalism, but even those will be watered down after the Republican National Convention if he’s able to secure the nomination. The rest of his policies from “fair trade” tariff threats to raising taxes on the rich to failing to back Israel were among dozens of early examples of his similarities to Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and even President Obama.

His supporters have excuses for all of them. They’ll say that when he mentioned tariffs, he only meant it as an empty threat because every conservative knows that the people who pay for tariffs are American consumers, not the targeted foreign country. When he talks about raising taxes on the rich, “heck ya because those &$^#*@#’s deserve to pay more.” The problem, of course, is that stifling the people and businesses that employ the masses always has the “unintended” side-effect of loss of jobs for average Americans. When he talks ill of Israel, his supporters will point to his speech at AIPAC when he said very nice things while pandering to the Jewish crowd.

Here’s the problem with Trump. He’s never held public office, but he’s a master politician. He was involved with political manipulations since before Ted Cruz was born and has never been ashamed to admit it. The most important skill that a politician learns is how to work an audience and tell them what they want to hear. He is better than Clinton at this. He is at least equal to if not better than President Obama, which is saying a lot.

The secret to this particular skill can be summed up in one quote:

“I’m very capable of changing to anything I want to change to.”

The reason that it works in a way that doesn’t cost him with voters can he summed up with two quotes. The first:

“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay.”

The second:

“I love the poorly educated.”

The way he’s able to do it is knowing his target audience. When he isn’t sure what they want him to say, he tries to evade the question. If pressed, he simply asks:

Here’s Trump’s answer to a question on whether religious employers should have the right to discriminate on the basis of religion when it comes to hiring: “That’s the question that’s been asked and discussed very brilliantly on many different levels over the last short period of time,” Trump said. “And I’m going to really leave that decision to you. That’s your personal decision. What would your answer be to that question?”

When we look at everything about Trump’s history, his skills, and his personal goal of being called, “Mr. President,” it’s easy to see the left turn that’s happening now was foreseeable from the start.

Transgender Bathrooms, Abortion, and Raising Taxes are Just the Start

There were so many headlines on April 21 from a single interview that most of them were lost in the mix. The passing of Prince overshadowed Trump’s gaffes as well. Still, the facts are out there and the writing is on the wall.

In case you missed it, Trump believes that transgender people should be able to use whatever bathroom they want, the Republican platform on abortion needs to be rewritten to a more liberal perspective, and taxes should be raised on the rich. With so much happening at once, the portion that received the most press was the bathroom comment, though the others were just as important (and liberal).

As Cruz put it, this is “conventional wisdom among Manhattan liberals,” and he’s absolutely correct. The more important revelation from Cruz is that this is an example of Trump caving to political correctness. Unfortunately, you won’t hear this from most of the “conservative” leaders in the media. They’re trying to figure out how to make Trump blend in with their cronyism while making himself viable for the general election.

To this end, Trump dispatched his newest attack dog and strategy guru. Infamous lobbyist Paul Manafort had a closed door meeting with the GOP elites to alert them of the leftist pivot. He acknowledged to them that Trump has been “playing a part,” acting one way to his fans that wasn’t real while preparing to evolve towards a progressive platform. This shift would infuriate Republicans during the primaries but he knows they’ll begrudgingly accept him once he’s the nominee.

“When he’s out on the stage, when he’s talking about the kinds of things he’s talking about on the stump, he’s projecting an image that’s for that purpose,” Manafort told the Republicans he met with, better known as “The Establishment.”

One would think that this could hurt his campaign, but it will only affect the grassroots. It will only hurt him to the discerning conservatives who have supported him but are opening their eyes to the reality that he’s more moderate than Bob Dole, John McCain, or Mitt Romney. Unfortunately, if Trump’s “long con” is successful, he’ll make up for those losses by picking up support in the Establishment. Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro understands it very clearly:

Trump isn’t trustworthy, and he never has been. Now he’s using that untrustworthiness as a selling point. That’s clever — it’s worked throughout the campaign actually, since he’s used his corrupt quasi-bribery of public officials as evidence that he knows how to work the system but can’t be bought himself. But it also demonstrates that all those who thought Trump authentic got played. Either that or those who think that Trump will fulfill promises to change now are getting played.

Trump’s hope was to win the nomination before shifting to the left, but being outmaneuvered by Cruz on the delegate front has forced his hand. Now, he’s pandering to the moderates in the Establishment by proving how politically correct he can be. The question is whether or not enough Republicans who haven’t voted will realize that a Clinton vs Trump matchup is a battle between two Democrats.