Donald Trump’s aides reportedly told surrogates Wednesday that the GOP nominee is upset his supporters went to the press and painted his performance in the first presidential debate as anything but a resounding success.
In a Wednesday afternoon conference call, Trump’s team told allies that he was upset by negative evaluations of his debate performance, according to a CNN report.
Trump’s aides were “not subtle” in expressing his displeasure with reports that his advisors—while publicly praising his performance in the debate—are wringing their hands in private, one unnamed source told CNN.
The GOP presidential nominee wants his surrogates to stop telling reporters that they want him to change his strategy before the second debate, CNN reported. Instead, aides told Trump’s surrogates to cast the debate as a success in which the candidate cemented his status as a political outsider.
Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller denied that Trump’s team told his supporters anything of the sort.
“The entire description of today’s call is completely false and anybody saying otherwise is just making it up,” he told CNN.
