Donald Trump has finally acknowledged that to best compete against Hillary Clinton he needs more than the bare-bones campaign team that led him to primary success. But many of the most experienced Republican political advisers aren't willing to work for him.
From Texas to New Hampshire, well-respected members of the Republican Party's professional class say they cannot look past their deep personal and professional reservations about the presumptive presidential nominee.
While there are exceptions, many strategists who best understand the mechanics of presidential politics fear that taking a Trump paycheck might stain their resumes, spook other clients and even cause problems at home. They also are reluctant to devote months to a divisive candidate whose campaign has been plagued by infighting and disorganization.
"Right now I feel no obligation to lift a finger to help Donald Trump," said Brent Swander, an Ohio-based operative who has coordinated nationwide logistics for Republican presidential campaigns dating to George W Bush.
"Everything that we're taught as children not to bully, not to demean, to treat others with respect everything we're taught as children is the exact opposite of what the Republican nominee is doing. How do you work for somebody like that? What would I tell my family?" Swander said.
Trump leapt into presidential politics with a small group of aides, some drafted directly from his real estate business, with no experience running a White House campaign.
An unquestioned success in the GOP primaries, they have struggled to respond to the increased demands of a general election.
As in years past, the primary season created a pool of battle-tested staffers who worked for other candidates, from which Trump would be expected to draw. But hundreds of such aides have so far declined invitations to work for him.
They include several communications aides to Chris Christie, as well as the New Jersey governor's senior political adviser, Michael DuHaime, who said he rejected direct and indirect inquiries to sign on with the billionaire.
Chris Wilson, a senior aide to Ted Cruz, said the Texas senator's entire paid staff of more than 150 ignored encouragement from Trump's team to apply for positions after Cruz quit the presidential race. Wilson said that even now, many unemployed Cruz aides are refusing to work for the man who called their former boss "Lyin' Ted."
That's the case for Scott Smith, a Texas-based operative who traveled the country planning events for Cruz, and earlier worked on presidential bids for Bush and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Trump introduced Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party
on the state.
"It's time for America to recapture its destiny. Our government, our leaders, and our media have lost touch with the people. You need no better evidence of that than the fact that the media ignores the plight of Americans who have lost their children to illegal immigrants, but spends day after day pushing for amnesty for those here in violation of the law," Trump said.
Trump alleged that "the Obama-Clinton foreign policy has unleashed ISIS, destabilised the Middle East and put the nation of Iran - which chants Death to America - in a dominant position of regional power and, in fact, aspiring to be a dominant world power".
"This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness. But Hillary Clinton's legacy doesn't have to be America's legacy.
"We are going to end the era of nation-building and create a new foreign policy - joined by our partners in the Middle East - that is focused on destroying ISIS. We will extend the hand of friendship to any nation that will work with us in good faith on this vital mission," Trump said.
"I have a message for the terrorists trying to kill our citizens: we will find you, we will destroy you, and we will win. This is not only a military fight, but we will also require cyberwarfare and financial warfare. It is also an ideological fight. We will confront directly the hateful ideology of Radical Islam - and promote American values, and American culture, and America's system of government," Trump added.
