News Analysis: Trump aims to change conversation, but hard to hold his tongue

U.S. Republican nominee Donald Trump's speech on the economy on Monday showed a more statesman-like side of him, but his controversial remarks on Clinton's gun control policy a day later quickly betrayed him.

Trump has in recent months become infamous for his big personality and equally big mouth. While it has galvanized blue collar white males to help him win the nomination, his colorful but often over-the-top rhetoric has offended many Americans outside Republican rank-and-file voters.

Analysts said he needs to tone down his presentation in a bid to clinch independent voters and others. But this proves to be a nearly impossible task for the brash New York real estate billionaire.

Trump's speech on Monday was in part a bid for him to appear to be more presidential. He refrained from trash talking, outlined his plan to revive the economy, and put it together in a cogent and rational argument.

"Trump attempted to change the conversation by giving a major economic address," Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies of the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua.

Indeed, Trump used a teleprompter to deliver the speech, instead of just winging it, as he so often does.

Reading from a pre-written speech helped Trump stay focused and refrain from his usual confrontational demeanor, which is a turn-off for many moderate voters.

Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua that speeches and policy positions like Monday's speech are certainly what Trump needs to do in order to shift away from the distractions and self-inflicted wounds of the past few weeks.

To try to appeal to voters, Trump will have to suggest that rival Hillary Clinton is a continuation of U.S. President Barack Obama's economic policies and that his policies will be a break away from policies on trade and regulations.

Mahaffee said that thus far, the "Hillary's status quo" message seems to be driving the most attention. He was referring to Trump's argument that Clinton would simply continue what Trump calls the failed economic policies under Obama.

But few people believe Trump can maintain the sense of civility very long. "He is able to stay in script for limited periods of time," West said.

On Tuesday, Trump issued arguably his most vile remarks in this year's campaign, by indicating that gun rights advocates could stop Clinton from appointing Supreme Court judges who will support stricter gun control.

"Hillary wants to abolish ... the Second Amendment ... by the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is," Trump told a campaign rally in North Carolina.

U.S. gun advocates insist their gun rights derive from the Second Amendment of the Constitution.

Critics interpreted Trump's remarks as a suggestion that gun rights advocates should kill Clinton to prevent her from implementing her gun control policy.

Trump later explained that he was not inciting violence, but was talking about a political movement only. But this could hardly convince people that he will become a guy who is calmer and more measured just as he was making the economic speech on Monday.

Certainly, many of Trump's recent stumbles have been self-inflicted, and a lot of them have to do with his temperament as a candidate.

Trump has come across to a lot of the American people as thin-skinned and impetuous, and that raises questions about someone who will have the powers and responsibilities inherent with the presidency, Mahaffee said.

While there is a lot of time left in the campaign, Trump has pushed away many educated moderates over the past few week, and his tumbling poll numbers in some important swing states have demonstrated that.

"With the debates looming and plenty of campaigning, there is time for that to change, but there is a risk that many people have made up their minds about Trump's temperament," Mahaffee said. Enditem