Dan Balz: “The unraveling of Donald Trump’s candidacy continues apace, a long and steady decline since the high point three months ago. If he were deliberately trying to avoid winning the election, he could hardly be doing a better job.”

“The hole he has dug for himself is wide and deep. National polls and battleground state polls all tell a similar story. Hillary Clinton has opened up a small-to-significant lead over Trump almost everywhere it counts. Unless Trump can reverse course, Clinton, despite persistent questions about her honesty, is on track to win a handsome electoral college majority. The lone bright spot for Trump: It’s August not October. But that comes with a caveat.”

“Republicans hope Trump is bottoming out. They are waiting for a pivot that could and should have happened before Memorial Day. They wonder whether it will happen by the end of the month or at all… The general election is already half over, and Trump has lost the first half decisively.”

For members: Only an Epic Comeback Can Save Trump Now

“Frankly, a lot of stuff over the last week … it’s him being distorted. For the last week or so, he’s been very focused and very much on his game.”

— Trump adviser Paul Manafort, quoted by the AP.

Donald Trump’s campaign has asked the RNC to open offices in all 50 states, a move one party aide said is a “complete waste of resources,” Playbook reports.

“For example, why boost resources in a state like Idaho, which is going to vote for Trump, or states like Hawaii or Massachusetts that certainly will not? An RNC source said it was a ‘fool’s errand’ and more for Trump’s ‘ego’ and for ‘bragging’ purposes, instead of deft campaign strategy. The source said it was a ‘personal request’ by Trump to have offices in all 50 states.”

“He would have absolutely allowed me to have done it.”

— Donald Trump, quoted by the New York Times, when asked what his father, who died in 1999, would have thought about his run for president.

“Facing one of the toughest stretches of his presidential campaign, Donald Trump acknowledged in unusually candid terms that he faced daunting hurdles in crucial states, as he swung wildly at Hillary Clinton to try to blunt her questions about his fitness to serve in the Oval Office,” the New York Times reports.

“Sliding in the polls, and under attack even by prominent figures in his own party, the usually self-assured Mr. Trump seemed to break character, lamenting his predicament, and even asking for help, before a group of 700 evangelical pastors and church leaders in Orlando, Fla.”

Meanwhile, Politico reports Trump has closed his campaign office in New Jersey, a state he once said he could win.

Donald Trump told the Miami Herald that he would support trying U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism in military tribunals — something that is almost certainly unconstitutional.

Said Trump: “Well, I know that they want to try them in our regular court systems, and I don’t like that at all. I don’t like that at all.”

Donald Trump’s campaign and top Republican Party officials plan what one person called a “come to Jesus” meeting on Friday to discuss the Republican nominee’s struggling campaign, Politico reports.

Though a campaign source dismissed it as a “typical” gathering, others described it as a more serious meeting, with one calling it an “emergency meeting.”

“It comes at a time of mounting tension between the campaign and the Republican National Committee, which is facing pressure to pull the plug on Trump’s campaign and redirect party funds down ballot to protect congressional majorities endangered by Trump’s candidacy.”

Donald Trump vowed to make child care more accessible and affordable and even used two programs he started as examples, the AP reports.

Said Trump: “You know, it’s not expensive for a company to do it. You need one person or two people, and you need some blocks, and you need some swings and some toys. It’s not an expensive thing, and I do it all over. And I get great people because of it. Because it’s a problem with a lot of other companies.”

“But the two programs Trump cited — Trump Kids and Trumpeteers — are programs catering to patrons of Trump’s hotels and golf club. They are not for Trump’s employees.”

Katy Tur writes for Marie Claire about her experiences covering Donald Trump’s presidential campaign:

The complexion of the crowd reflects Trump’s base, which, according to polls, is white and male. They dress in all-camouflage, or all red, white, and blue, or—because they are meeting a billionaire–all suits, gowns, and formalwear. There are moms, cute kids, and roaming packs of young people. The pregame parking lot can feel like a state fair without the Ferris wheel.

Trump is a room-reader. He’ll slow down a line, rephrase a point, work in a pause, and ride the energy of his audience wherever it takes him. For 45, 60, even 90 minutes, he’ll run through classic riffs, like bomb the hell out of ISIS, build a wall, make America great again. But he’ll also experiment, as when he launched an ethnically tinged attack on a Mexican- American judge deciding the civil fraud case against Trump University.

Washington Post: “The pattern has repeated itself again and again. First come Trump’s attention-getting expressions. Then come the outraged reactions. The headlines follow. Finally, Trump, his aides and his supporters lash out at the media, accusing journalists of twisting his words or missing the joke. It happened last week, when Trump appeared to kick a baby out of a rally, then later insisted that he was kidding. It happened the week before, when he encouraged Russia to hack Clinton’s emails, then claimed he was just being sarcastic.”

“And with each new example, Trump’s rhetorical asides grow more alarming to many who hear them — and prompt condemnations from an ever-wider universe of critics.”