Shortly after the infamous Billy Bush tape became public in October 2016, the story goes, officials with the Republican National Committee approached Donald Trump to inform him of a sobering reality: He would not become president.
In reality, recalled Sean Spicer, the then-communications director for the RNC, things went a bit differently. Yes, then-RNC Chairman Reince Priebus told Trump he believed that, as things stood, he would lose to Hillary Clinton. But they didn’t declare the door closed. Instead, they presented slides on the difficult path forward along with a synopsis of what Trump would have to do to change his fortunes.
On that list was a suggestion completely at odds with Trump’s id. He needed to lay low.