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Donald Trump’s Shortcuts and Salesmanlike Stretches

Donald J. Trump in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday. Mr. Trump’s avoidance of specifics is seen by some admirers as a refreshing contrast.Credit...Ty Wright/Getty Images

Here are some of Donald J. Trump’s favorite ways to deal with a difficult question:

Asked what he would do on issues like trade deals or terrorism, he warns that bad things are happening “all over the place.” His policies as president might or might not include the subject at hand “and a lot of different things.” All ethnic groups will “love” a Trump presidency.

Here is what you may almost never hear Mr. Trump say: “I’m not familiar with that,” or “I misspoke.”

No one ever expected Mr. Trump to turn himself into the issues expert of the Republican presidential field. Yet the verbal shortcuts and salesmanlike stretches that he has relied on for months — generalities used to dodge questions, and questionable recollections — are tripping him up as the tenor of the campaign has grown more serious.

Mr. Trump’s avoidance of specifics is seen by some of his admirers as a refreshing contrast to musty politicians who play by the rules. And he has a knack for muddying the waters with catchall phrases that allow his supporters and detractors to read whatever they want into his statements.

But his refusal to be pinned down on the details of his positions has repeatedly prompted reporters and interviewers to engage in a guessing game as to what he means. And he tends to choose all of the above.

“Trump has an amazing ability to backtrack without incurring any political harm from doing so,” said Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review. “His supporters don’t seem to care very much about consistency from one interview or statement to the next, as long as he’s always projecting strength.”

Jeff Shesol, a speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, pointed to what he called Mr. Trump’s “unshakable sense of self-confidence,” adding: “He’s asking you to just trust him with that.”

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Danny Engelskirchen of Charlotte, N.C., set up a merchandise booth at a rally for Donald J. Trump on Monday in Columbus, Ohio.Credit...Andrew Spear for The New York Times

When Mr. Trump told a Yahoo News reporter on Thursday that steps would have to be taken to monitor American Muslims “that were frankly unthinkable a year ago,” the reporter asked if that might include registering Muslims in a database or requiring them to carry a special form of identification. Mr. Trump did not rule out either. “We’re going to have to look at a lot of things very closely,” he said.

And on Sunday, when ABC’s George Stephanopoulos tried to flesh out what Mr. Trump had meant by “unthinkable” policies, he asked Mr. Trump if waterboarding was one of them. It took two tries before he gave a direct answer. “I would bring it back, yes,” Mr. Trump said.

Even when he reverses course, he often manages to do it in such a way that his supporters rally behind him.

When Joe Scarborough of MSNBC, three days after the terrorist attacks in Paris, asked Mr. Trump if he would consider closing mosques, Mr. Trump seemed to treat it quite seriously. “I would hate to do it, but it would be something that you’re going to have to strongly consider,” he said.

In the next breath, though, Mr. Trump seemed to click undo: “It’s something that many people — not me, but many people — are considering and many people are going to do,” he said.

Not all the land mines Mr. Trump has stepped on lately were placed by journalists.

At a rally in Alabama on Saturday, Mr. Trump claimed that he “watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering” as the World Trade Center fell on Sept. 11, 2001. He repeated the claim to Mr. Stephanopoulos on Sunday. But it was false, as fact-checkers at The New York Times and other organizations have since reported.

Mr. Trump did not budge, however. Instead, he pointed on Monday to a 2001 Washington Post article that said “a number of people” in Jersey City were detained and questioned for “allegedly” celebrating on their rooftops.

“I want an apology! Many people have tweeted that I am right!” he wrote on Twitter. (On Monday evening, the NBC reporter Katy Tur said Mr. Trump had called her to say he has “the world’s best memory.”)

Terrorism has not been the only trouble spot in recent days. On Monday night, in an interview with Mr. Trump, the Fox News host Bill O’Reilly chastised him for a Twitter message that contained false statistics claiming that black-on-white murders are much higher than they are.

“Don’t put your name on stuff like this,” Mr. O’Reilly said.

“I didn’t tweet; I retweeted somebody that supposedly was an expert,” Mr. Trump said.

Through it all, Mr. Trump has never apologized or acknowledged a mistake. Someone else is almost always to blame; in the case of the Muslim registry flap, Mr. Trump faulted the reporter who first asked him about the idea. And Mr. Trump’s supporters seem content to take his word for it.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump declined to comment for this article.

Politicians are not known for adhering to the facts with laser precision at all times. But Mr. Trump has shown that this year, voters care less than they ever did.

“The electorate, at least the Republican electorate, is a little skeptical of specificity this year,” said Matt Latimer, a speechwriter for President George W. Bush and a partner in the Washington communications firm Javelin. Voters are weary of unfulfilled promises from politicians, he said. “What they’re looking for is attitude and tone.”

There is a distant echo of Barry Goldwater, whose 1964 presidential campaign helped bring about the conservative revolution in the Republican Party. Mr. Trump’s supporters often say he gives voice to things that no one else will say; Goldwater’s slogan in 1964 was “In your heart, you know he’s right.”

Yet Goldwater had been elected to office before, despite views that were seen as radical at the time.

“This is Trump’s first go, and he seems — judging by the polls, he’s succeeding on his own terms,” Mr. Shesol said. “It’s sort of maddening and mystifying to the rest of us.”

Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 18 of the New York edition with the headline: Shortcuts and Salesmanlike Stretches Are Trump’s Answer to Tough Issues . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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