mark: with all due respect to john heilemann, focus. ♪ mark: rick perry out of orbit. but first, donald trump's gravitational pull. today he was doing the kinds of things candidates do -- he topped a quinnipiac poll and hired michael glasser, a respected republican strategist to be his national political director. he also held a's -- held a press conference in scotland with golf reporters. in our ongoing attempt to

understand this trap phenomenon, we partnered with our colleagues at purple strategies ended a phone locks -- a focus group on him. we will have excerpts from the conversation later, but here is a piece of what they said about what they like about brand trap. >> he is on choreographed and honest. >> he is reagan-esque. >> trump is a threat, because he does not fit in the same box as the other republicans. >> besides the money issue, he is intent with what everybody is wanting. mark: first you say trop is not just a summer fling. john: this is not michele

bachmann or herman cain. this guy is not new to them. they have been following his career they know about his fame and celebrity. they like him and they have every infant -- every indication of being with them for the long haul. mark: people know him good and bad and they have factored that all and. the hard thing about something new is, if you do something wrong, that is all what everybody knows about you. trump has a baseline with these people. people associate mr. trop with the great american success? john: we did not talk about immigration other stuff, or even the brashness -- the first thing they went to was tycoon, did this stuff, rich guy. the 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 then is the political class. they think a guy flying in a private jet is more like them then someone in washington dc. emily: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 not only defended him, but they thought less of parry and bush after watching them attacked trump. 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 do not know he was once for single payer health care. they are worried that he will shoot himself in the foot and damage the republican prospects of taking back the white house. mark: i was surprised at the emotional loyalty they have to him.

it is not going to be effortless, even with a lot of negative ads, if they come, this -- to pride people away from trump. the more he is attacked, the more they will rally around him and say, mr. trump says washington politicians are trying to destroy him. john: 20% may be his ceiling but it is also his floor. 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. but then just minutes later mark, you asked the former texas governor a basic question about the republican leadership in congress. how -- here is how prepared parry was -- perry was for this particular line of inquiry. rick perry: i think they are working towards getting some -- getting some -- financial things headed in the right direction. making reductions in spending getting these agencies, but the fact is the american people

don't really see washington 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 totally under the microscope, that would be fine but whether he is in the prime dime debate -- the primetime debate or the secondary debate it looks like he suffered from aphasia like that. mark: rick perry is much smarter than 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: if my company did that or michael rubio -- or marco -- if mike huckabee did that or marco rubio did that, 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 under, you can't make a mistake like that

in a debate. i think his fundraising, which has not been gangbusters, could dry up completely. mark: ijohn: i agree he is under a lot of pressure, but i've got a say, i have never seen you look like you are about to have a coronary embolism in front of me and not have a decent answer to my question. the answer he came up with was lame, too. mark: he was caught between not wanting to blast republican leaders but not wanting to appear uncritical. i do believe that rick perry has the chance to exceed expectations. i will say it again, if he gives an answer like that in the debate, it is problematic. there is a story up on bloomberg politics.com about how some donors are marco rubio's senate campaign are not supporting him for president and are continuing -- contributing to some of his white house rivals. it is also just -- suggested

that there is a deeper problem for marco rubio, saying that he must rely on several voting blocs instead of one. he doesn't have as much -- he is not as much of an evangelical as crews or huckabee. he doesn't have as much experience as others and he is not even as popular in his home state as florida. rubio has objectively been amongst the hardest hit. the numbers in the national state polls don't lie. one national poll showed rubio as high at 18%. 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 temporary setback for marco rubio, or is there something more fundamentally wrong with his campaign? john: more fundamentally wrong. not just a temporary setback. when marco rubio announced, we sat on this show and said, first

tier candidate. he is still in the first year in terms of fundraising, but there is no way that he is a first tier candidate right now. he has no clear hook in a race that you need to break through. mark: his hook that he -- is that he is a new face, but a lot of people in the party are still worried about the whole obama thing. trump is crowding him out to get better known. i still believe it is early and the strength of 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 has to try in all of them and he is spreading himself in. that means he is not focused on just one or two. john: i read the story in "the new york times" that portrayed it -- south carolina as if it was his key state. i thought, you don't look strong

in south carolina in this story that is supposed to make you look strong. mark: right now marco rubio is not doing as well as his supporters would like. 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 describing donald trump last night, when bloomberg politics partners purple strategies convened our focus group in manchester, new hampshire. i asked them what a hypothetical trump presidency would like. >> he says it like it is. 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 truth -- what we need to do. john: jon? jon: yes, i think he says what he feels. >> like you said, i will not be

bought off, where is anybody else has the chance to be bought off. >> others get washington-itis, so many politicians go to washington and don't work for the constituents anymore. >> 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. if they are pastel, donald trump is vivid colors because he says things the way they are. >> we need business. i like his roughness and his little reaganesque ideas come to mind. he is tough. we need someone 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. five. if you didn't put your hand up

do you look at bp party as basically a good thing or do you think 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 and listening to him, it made me 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 you to name any other candidate who has struck you as promising or interesting. anybody else you think might be interested in. >> 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. quick second pick of anyone. john: can't think of anyone. >> all of the lower-level guys have good points but 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? anyone jump into your mind? rubio -- >> rubio carson trump. john: there are a number of you who were romney supporters. for those of you who were, do you see romney and trump as being sort of similar? quite successful business people? >> a little bit. yeah. >> as far as his electability, i think they are different. i think romney was a little too sensitive. you could see that after the first debate. he completely fell apart and everybody was wondering what happened to romney. i don't see that happening with donald trump. >> from what i see he is in touch with what everybody is thinking and what everybody wants.

he will do with america what is needed and not what people want to hear. he is like one of us. he may be a millionaire, but besides the money issue he is still into with what everybody -- in two with 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 that will launch other people off and it would very much concern me at that point if he 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 money. i think that could be trump's downfall as much as his asset as -- and it could also be a weakness, because of the way some people perceive wealth. some people see it as success

and others see it as greed. somehow in america, profit motive has somehow equaled greed in the media. when you see a man who is wealthy and runs profitable businesses he is a target for , people to hate. john: jon, what about you? anything to worry about? 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 guys have been admirers of mr. tromp. he obviously has not run for president before but he is obviously someone that americans know because he is a celebrity. do people in this room -- who in this room first became aware of donald trump with "the apprentice?" that television show. just talk about when you first started to notice trump in

american life. >> we all know about trump towers and 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 i had to reference when he started running. >> even before "the apprentice." i have known of him for years. >> 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

if i could write him a letter to ask him how he made his money so i could do it. john: did you write that letter? >> i never wrote the letter, but i remember asking more about him and finding out he was in real estate. but again, i didn't even know what trump towers were. john: even as a young 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 cash all these departments within the government wasted away, having secret e-mail accounts and servers. you just wouldn't have that. he would clean house and ensure that america is on the path to prosperity again. >> he would come up these hours in the bureaucracy -- the cz

ars in the bureaucracy. >> i think it would be exciting. i really do. i am looking forward to it. it will be an interesting thing every day. >> more transparent. >> it will be nice to see that debt clock go the other way. john: what would a trump residency look like echo >> classy. 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 respond to donald trump and his

controversial comments. some have called for civility others not. 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 -- it's not like he thinks that every mexican person who crosses the border is a rapist. he is doing this to inflame and incite. john: what you guys take about -- think 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 on conservatism and it must be diagnosed, excised, and discarded. john: what did you guys think of rick perry their? >> i liked rick perry until this came out. [laughter] >> honestly, it makes him look like a teddy bear. -- trump 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. saying, oh he's going to hurt the party -- the party hasn't exactly been thriving. [laughter] john: he is using the word to describe illegal immigrants as rapists, did that bother people -- what were your reactions? >> it in a bother me. >> i think it is too generalized. i think that is a concern. >> if he said some of the people

coming in do this and do that, but he said it 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 he said it. it was in too much of a generalized way. >> but he also said some of them are good people. >> that is what i was going to bring up, he said not all of them are bad, but there is a lot. john: for a time, donald trump was pro-choice. he says he is now having second thoughts about that, but for many years he was pro-choice. is that bother anybody in the room? >> being pro-choice, yes, that bothers me. john: did you know that before this? >> i did not. john: knowing that, with that affect your view in some way? 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: so we mentioned that trump

was a democrat for a long time -- that is true. not only was he a democrat but he also gave a ton of money to democratic candidates. is that bother anybody in the room? -- does that bother anybody in the room? >> that was the past. >> i don't hold that against him that all of a sudden he has decided that he is more aligned in his thoughts with the republican party than with the democrats. >> he seems more of an independent. >> yeah. john: for many years, donald trump would say that he is very conservative on issues and he is liberal on a lot of issues -- one of those issues was health care. for a long time, he said he was a supporter of a single-payer health care plan. how many knew that fact before? >> that could be an issue. >> how long ago was that? john: not that long ago. >> i will have to look at that. >> that is troubling. john: 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 in the general election. who would -- if you guys would be open to supporting donald trump's and the candidacy, why? -- independent candidacy, 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. it will do just about -- it will teach us a lesson, even if we have an other democrat. 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. more tomorrow, and we will be right back. ♪

mark: more tomorrow from the focus groups. until then, we are live all the

time on bloomberg.com. john: remember, we are on twice a day -- 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.. until tomorrow, we say to you, sayonara. ♪

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