By, Siraj Hashmi
Donald Trump is in full desperation mode following his second major staff shake up of his campaign, according to many political insiders.
After being branded by Democrats and his political opponents as a "racist" and a "bigot", Trump has pivoted his message in an attempt to attract black and Latino voters.
In Dimondale, Michigan last Friday, Trump made his first pitch by railing against Democratic policies emphasizing that things will only get worse under Hillary Clinton.
"Look at how much African American communities are suffering from Democratic control. To those I say the following: What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? What do you have to lose?" Trump asked the crowd. "You live in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?"
This new strategy comes in the wake of Trump hiring Stephen Bannon of Breitbart News to be his campaign's chief executive and Kellyanne Conway as his new campaign manager to replace Paul Manafort, who resigned amid speculation of connections to a pro-Putin Ukrainian group.
Despite the new messaging, Trump's support from blacks is hovering around eight percent among registered voters, according to an NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll. He's performing worse with blacks than any other racial demographic. Clinton currently has 87 percent of the black vote, according to the same poll.
While the new tone may garner some new support, according to Eric Ham, author of "The GOP Civil War: Inside the Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party", Trump needs all the help he can get from racial and ethnic minority voters because he's seeing his support slip elsewhere.
"He's losing every key electorate in this election at this moment," Ham told GVH Live. "He's doing very poorly among white, college educated voters. I think what he is thinking, along with his campaign team, is for every white voter we lose, we need to try to grab more of the minority vote."
College educated white voters is the most contested demographic between Clinton and Trump. Clinton holds a slight edge over Trump, 47 to 46 percent.
In addition to a shift in campaign messaging to black voters, it appears Trump is also pivoting to attract Latino voters. During a town hall this week, Trump admitted to Sean Hannity that he's willing to soften his stance on deporting all 11-12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. This comes after a year of disparaging Latinos by calling Mexicans criminals and "rapists".
"The way he's actually talking about it now only increases the alienation that both African Americans and Latinos, I think will continue to exhibit during this campaign." Ham explained.
With a little over two months left until the election, Trump finds himself in a bigger hole, trailing Clinton by 10 points, according to the most recent poll released by Quinnipiac University , 51 to 41 percent.