The world will see the "human side" of Donald Trump at this week's Republican Convention in Ohio, which promises to be a stark contrast to his "campaign side", the presidential candidate's manager says.
Mr Trump is getting ready for the four-day long convention in Ohio which is set to get underway on Tuesday (NZ time).
Thousands of the party faithful will be in attendance where Mr Trump will officially get the party's endorsement to run for the White House in November.
But they'll also be met with thousands of protesters from a wide range of causes, with the Black Lives Matter movement likely to be the most prominent.
Inside the Quicken Loans Arena where the convention is taking place, Mr Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort told Newshub the world's audience should be prepared to see another side of the candidate.
Paul Manafort (Newshub.)
"They're going to see a leader, they're going to a decisive person with a human side who cares about people, who has a deep sense of family and who has a deep understanding of the issues and has done for a long time."
A number of Mr Trump's family, including daughters Ivanka and Tiffany, son Eric, and current wife Melania are among those giving speeches throughout the conference which runs from July 18-21.
Mr Manafort says that's a deliberate ploy to show a different face of Mr Trump who's so far largely been known for his violent, racist and hateful rhetoric on the campaign trail.
"They're going to see a different side of Donald trump that we want to project other than the campaign side," he says.
Mr Manafort dismissed the apparent civil war in the Republican party, saying supporters are "overwhelmingly pro-Trump".
Earlier in the 70-year-old businessman's campaign, talk of a contested convention was rife, meaning it would have been possible for the party to ditch Mr Trump for another candidate.
Mr Trump had railed against that, saying the nominating process was "crooked" or "corrupt".
"I say this to the RNC and I say it to the Republican Party. You're going to have a big problem folks because there are people that don't like what's going on," he said at a rally in Rochester, New York in April.
In June, Speaker of the House and the highest-ranking Republican Paul Ryan, a former vice-presidential nominee, made it clear he wouldn't get in the way of any rebellion against Mr Trump.
"The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something that's contrary to their conscience," he said.
"I get that this is a very strange situation. He's a very unique nominee."
At the time, he admitted the party was "divided".
But in a bid to overcome that, Mr Manafort says Mr Trump has gone to Washington to meet members of the House and Senate. He's also appointed Indiana governor and radio talkshow host Mike Pence as his running mate.
Mr Manafort believes the apprehension toward Mr Trump could be because he's an unknown quantity.
"[Mr] Trump's problems with Washington, leadership or not, are more a lack of [knowledge about] who he is. We've gone to Washington several time," he said.
"Last week we spoke to the House and Senate caucuses with overwhelming support, so it's all coming together - that's what a convention does," he says.
The convention officially ends the primary process, leaving the party to focus on November's general election in November, where Mr Trump will come up against the presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The Democrats will be holding their convention in Philadelphia from July 25.
Mr Manafort has a long history as a lobbyist and political consultant who was an advisor in a number of presidential campaigns including Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush and John McCain.
Newshub.
