People around Trump see a candidate knocked off his game

An Aug 2 dinner at the home of Mr Howard Lutnick, the Cantor Fitzgerald chief executive, was a high-powered affair.

Among the roughly 130 people who attended were some of Donald Trump's wealthiest supporters, including billionaire hedge fund financier Bill Ackman and Mr Omeed Malik, the president of another fund, 1789 Capital.

Some guests hoped Trump would signal that he was recalibrating after a series of damaging mistakes. He did not.

Answering a question question that voiced concerns about the upcoming election during a roundtable discussion, Trump said, "We've got to stop the steal", reviving yet again his false claims about the 2020 election claims that his advisers have urged him to drop because they do not help him with swing voters.

According to two people present, Trump also brought up his remark, made two days earlier, in which he had questioned US Vice-President Kamala Harris' racial identity.

It had been a display of flagrant race-baiting, and it instantly reprogrammed America's TV news chyrons: He falsely claimed that Ms Harris had only recently decided to identify as black for political purposes.

But Trump showed no regret. "I think I was right," he told the donors on Aug 2.

The fund raiser came amid a stretch of flailing and self-harm that began after President Joe Biden's July 21 withdrawal from the race and endorsement of Ms Harris.

Trump has found the change disorienting, those who interact with him say. He had grown comfortable campaigning against an 81-yearold incumbent. Suddenly, he finds himself in a race against a black woman nearly 20 years younger who is drawing large and excited crowds.

The people around Trump see a candidate knocked off his bearings, nothing like the man who watched in July as thousands of delegates cheered him on the first night of the Republican National Convention. Then, Trump, his ear bandaged, was a living martyr after the assassination attempt two days before.