visit philipslifeline.com/caregiver today or call this number for your free brochure and ask about free activation. john: i'm john heilemann. yeah i say i wanted to ask you -- john: i'm john heilemann. mark: and i'm mark halperin. and "with all due respect" to john heilemann, focus. ♪ and today we're talking about presidential candidate donald trump and his supporters. in our ongoing attempt to understand this phenomenon, we partnered with our colleagues and did a focus group last night with 12 donald backers. we are going to have extended excerpts a little later in the show.

here's a piece on what they said about what they like about brand trump. >> i like his roughness and his reaganesque style. >> trump is a threat. >> like you said, he won't be bought off. >> he has tactics that separate him from everybody else. he has money that everybody is wanting. besides the money issue he is tapping into what everybody is wanting. john, you have a piece up. let's run through some of them. first, you say trump is not just a summer fling. john: what you can see as they did not suddenly come up on this

guy. they have been following his career, they know about his name and celebrity, trump towers, trump golf course, he has every indication of being with them for the long haul. mark: people know him good and bad and usually if you do something wrong, that is all what everybody knows about you. trump has a baseline with these people. what do you say about trump being the great american success? john: we talked about the brashness and the antiestablishment idea. they first thing they went it was tycoon, build stuff, rich guy, definition of american success. mark: there is no doubt that they love that but also in one of your takeaways, they also say he is a billionaire but he is a billionaire just like us. that is hard to figure that out but that is exactly what they said. john: they said he is not one of

them and he is part of a different group than the political class. they even see a guy flying in a private jet to be more like them than a politician or a washington senator, that he is more like them. mark: on opposite sides of the same coin, he is teflon, but he may cause his own undoing. john: we showed you video of rick perry and jeb bush attacking donald trump, but these people rallied for donald trump. they defended him, and so it tells you how hard it is going to be for conventional attacks to stick. on the other side, you can tell that they do not know much about trump's political history. they don't know that he was once for single-payer health care. they're worried that he will shoot himself in the foot and ruin the republican prospects of taking back the white house. mark: i was surprised that one point at the emotional loyalty to him. it is not going to be

effortless, even with a lot of negative ads, if they come, this will take people away from trump. i get a sense that the more he is attacked on some occasions, at least, the more they will rally around him. when he is going to say is washington politicians trying to destroy him. john: 20% may be his feeling. today on "morning joe," rick perry says he is more ready for the debate stage that he was in 2012 and we remember his infamous oops moment. you asked him a pretty basic question about the republican leadership in congress. here is how prepared perry was for this particular line of inquiry. mark: what are boehner and mcconnell doing well now? rick perry: i think they are working towards getting some -- getting some -- getting some financial things headed in the right direction. making some reductions in spending in these agencies.

but you know, the fact is whether it is congress or whether it is the president addressing the solutions that are facing this country. john: oh boy, for any candidate who wasn't under the microscope that would be fine, but if he was talking at the debate next week, it looks like he suffered from aphasia like that. mark: i don't think this is fair. rick perry is smarter than more people realize. if he did that in the debate on thursday, i think his campaign would be over and i think a lot of his supporters would say the same thing. it shows you how little margin of error he had. john: that was bad, right? mark: and that was marco rubio or mike huckabee, no one would care. i felt bad for him, and he doesn't want to make a mistake and i thought today for the first time, the kind of pressure that he is laboring, you can't make a mistake like that in a debate. i think his fundraising, which

has not been gangbusters, could be freezing. -- could dry up completely. john: he is under a lot of pressure because when you run for president. you play the big game, but i've never seen you look like you are about to have a coronary embolism in front of me and not be able to come up with a decent answer to my question. the answer he came up with was lame, too. mark: it was not the easiest question he has ever been asked. he was caught up with not wanting to blast republican leaders but not wanting to appear uncritical. but i do believe that rick perry has the chance to exceed expectations. i will say again, it is problematic. john: he is cooked, he is done if he does that again. mark: mike vendors has an article right now that says some donors in marco rubio's senate campaign are not contributing into his presidential campaign and are contributing to his rivals. there is also the idea that there is a deeper problem for

marco rubio, saying that he must rely on several voting blocs instead of one. he is not a natural choice for angela -- for evangelical voters. he doesn't have as much experience as others and he is not even as popular in his home state as florida. a number of candidates have been suffering since a donald trump enter the race. but rubio has objectively been the hardest hit. the numbers in the national state polls don't lie. one national poll showed rubio's high at 18%. others had him in the mead -- in the midteens. now he gets about 6% in most national polls. he is hovering around 5% in key early state polls, and that is down from double digits just a few months ago. john, is this a setback for marco rubio, or is there something more fundamentally wrong with his campaign? john: fundamentally wrong, when marco rubio announced, we sat on this show and said, first year candidate. he is still in the first year in terms of fundraising, but there is no way that he is a

first-year candidate and any other way. he has no clear hook in a race that you need a hook. mark: his focus his biography in the notion that he is a new face. a lot of people in the party are still worried about the whole thing, and trump is crowding him out to get better known. i still believe it is early and the strength of his comments -- his candidacy could make him the antiestablishment candidate without a doubt. the problem that i have in the stalling of these polls is that i don't see, and i have said this before, but i don't see it is strong in the early states. he is spreading himself in. he has to try in all of them and that means he is not focused on just one or two. john: i read the story in "the new york times" and the story was supposed to make them look good. mark: right now marco rubio is not doing as well as his supporters would like.

to say the least. coming up next, what did one trump supporter say to the other trump supporter? find out when we come back. ♪

john: "classy." "reaganesque." "one of us." those are all of the words and phrases i heard it described by trump supporters last night. i met with a group of trump supporters in manchester, new hampshire. i asked them what a hypothetical trump presidency would like. >> he speaks the truth. john: and what truth is that? >> when he talks about especially immigration control and the border, he really doesn't care what people think. he tells the true. -- the truth. he says what we need to do. john: jon? jon: yes, i think he says what he feels. >> others get washington-itis,

but i don't think he will. >> the way i see it, the political rhetoric from most of the politicians is in pastel colors. they talk for two hours and then you go away saying, what did they say of substance? probably nothing. but they haven't offended anybody and they have tried to make everybody their friend. but they are pastel but donald trump is in vivid colors because he says things the way they are. >> i like his roughness and his little reaganesque ideas come to mind. he is tough. he is just tough. john: how many people in this room consider yourselves a member of the tea party? all of those hands up so i can see. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. so five. if you didn't put your hand up do you feel the tea party is a

good thing or the tea party doesn't have anything to do with that? >> i like ted cruz, so out of that, i didn't know much about the tea party, and after seeing him, listening to him, it maybe look into it a little bit more. but i am not a full-fledged, but it is interesting. they do raise some really good points. john: i'm going to go around the room and ask about any candidate who has struck you as interesting a little bit. >> ben carson. john: ben carson. >> no one. john: no one. >> ben carson. john: ben carson. >> i can't think of anyone. john: you can't think of anyone. >> ted cruz. john: ted cruz. >> i don't want to vote in the primary for somebody i know that can't make it.

>> sure. john: you? >> ben carson. john: fred? fred: don't know. john: you don't know? anybody jump in here? >> there are a couple that interest me. i am not sure. john: do you see romney and trump as being a sort of similar? >> no. >> successful business people? >> a little bit. >> i guess in the business aspect. but as far as his, maybe you could call it his electability you could see that after his first of may, romney completely fell apart and everybody was wondering what happened to romney. i don't see that happening with donald trump. >> he is in touch with what everybody is thinking and what everybody wants. he will do with america what is needed and not what america

wants to hear. he is like one of us. he may be a millionaire which separates him from everybody else, but he is still doing what everybody is wanting. john: what is the thing that you like least about him or the thing that you can say concerns you most about him as a president of candidate? it could be something or it could be nothing. >> i think he could cross over with an inappropriate comment and it would very much concern me at that point if you were the nominee and we were down to two people. john: is there anything about donald trump that worries you? that you don't like? >> what hurt romney was his success and was his money and i think that could be trump's downfall as much as his asset as well as his weakness, as some people perceive wealth. some people see it as success and some people see it as weak. somehow in america, profit motive has somehow equaled greed

in the media. when you see a man who is wealthy, he is a target for people to hate. john: jon, what about you? jon: i think he could shoot himself in the foot. but if he did, he could make money out of it. [laughter] >> good point. john: i am just curious about how long you have been fans of him. he has obviously not run for president before but he is obviously someone that americans know because he is a celebrity. does anyone in this room, do people -- who in this room, when the first time when donald trump came to your awareness was "the apprentice?" that television show. just go about telling when you started noticing trump in real

life. >> we all know about him building casinos in atlantic city and going bankrupt and having all of these deals with banks and everything and trying to get his fortune back. so i knew of him. "the apprentice," i thought him as arrogant and abrasive, but that is a tv show. so his personality had to be that way or his famous statement "you're fired" wouldn't have any teeth in it. but those are the only two opinions that i had to reference when he started running. >> even before "the apprentice." i was a little girl. i didn't even know what trump towers were, but i knew he was a wealthy, successful man. i remember asking my mother about writing a letter to ask

him how he made his money so i could do it. john: did you do it? >> i never wrote the letter but i remember asking more about him and finding out he was in real estate. but i didn't even know what trump towers were. john: so just the word, even as a kid, the word "trump" meant success? >> it did. john: tell me what you think a trump presidency would look like? >> a better america. >> it would be cleaned up. you wouldn't have always -- all these departments and government wasted away with secret e-mail accounts and and servers. he would clean house and ensure that america is on the path to prosperity again. >> he would get rid of the bureaucracy and the department of this and the department of that. >> i think it would be exciting. i really do. i am looking forward to it. it will be an interesting thing every day.

>> we will have a more transparent government. >> it will be nice to see that debt clock go the other way. >> he will be classy and i think he will bring a lot of companies back to our country and be a lot more promising. >> to the american people, it would be a presidency of hope. john: when we come back, we show trump supporters what other republicans are saying about their guy. their reaction is, as they say a little trumpy. stay tuned. ♪

mark: as the republican field prepares for its first debate in cleveland next week, the candidates are trying to figure out exactly how to deal with donald trump. so we saw attacks against the

real estate mogul and they rose to donald's defense. jeb bush: i don't think he represents the republican party and his views are way out of the mainstream on what the public thinks. he is not a stupid guy, so he thinks that every mexican person who crosses the border is a rapist. he is doing this to inflame and insight. john: what you guys take about this? >> what are these fringe ideas that he is putting out there that the conservatives don't agree with? what is he talking about? >> i don't think he likes how trump is doing right now and i think he is trying to discredit him and make himself feel better. >> just take him off my list. [laughter]

rick perry: donald trump's candidacy is a cancer and it must be excised and discarded. >> i liked rick perry until this came out. [laughter] >> honestly, it makes him look like a teddy bear. [laughter] >> he sees trump as a threat because he doesn't fit into the same box of that all of the other republicans are in. that is why we are hearing stuff from bush now, stuff from rick perry. they haven't exactly been thriving. [laughter] john: he is using the word to describe illegal immigrants as rapist, what do you think about that? >> i think it is too generalized. i think that is a concern. >> it did not bother me. >> it did not bother me. >> if he said some of the people coming in do this and do that,

but he said in general, they are this and they are that, and i think that is where he got the criticism. it is not that he is wrong, it is the way that he said it and it is in too much of a generalized way. >> but also some of it was good. >> yes, he did. that is what i was going to bring up, he said not all of them are bad, that some are bad. john: for a long time, donald trump was pro-choice. he now says he has second thoughts about being pro-choice and being for abortion rights. for many, many years he was pro-choice. does that bother anybody in the room? >> being pro-choice, yep, that bothers me. john: did you know that before this? >> no. john: knowing that, does that affect your view of him somewhat? >> it improves my view of him to know that now that he has now taken the pro-life stance. john: ok. >> i would say he has seen the light.

john: we mentioned that trump was a democrat at one point that is true, but not only that but he also gave democratic candidates thousands of dollars permit does that bother anybody that he was a democratic donor? >> hundreds of thousands of dollars is like me getting them a quarter though. >> that was the past. >> i don't hold that against him and all of a sudden he has decided that he is more aligned in his thoughts with the republican party than with the democrats. >> seems like he is more independent. john: for many years, donald trump would say that he is very conservative on issues and he was liberal on health care. for a long time, he said he was a supporter of a single-payer health care plan. how many people knew that fact before? >> that could be an issue. >> how long ago was that? john: not that long ago. there has been talk recently that if he doesn't get the republican nomination, he might run as an independent candidate or be a third-party independent

candidate. would you guys be open to considering an open to supporting donald trump's independent candidacy and why? >> the only thing that i can think of that would force him out would be the republican establishment and the rnc doing something and actually forcing him out. if that is the case, if that motivates trump to be independent, then we can vote for him. john: for those of you who wouldn't support trump if he ran as an independent, why would you not support him? >> ross perot. the math doesn't lie. mark: all very interesting. we will be right back. ♪

mark: more from the trump focus group on tomorrow's show. until then, we are live all the time on bloomberg.com. john: until tomorrow, we say to

you sayonara. ♪

emily: linkedin shares climbing higher in extended trading. we will look at the media giant optimistic forecasts and claims that it cracked china. ♪ i'm emily chang and this is "bloomberg west. electronic arts gets the boot, but wall street is not impressed. t-mobile path plan to overtake sprint. i sit down with the company's ceo, braxton carter. why combination are and -- why