Trump tones down before New Hampshire primary

Plymouth, February 8

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump came to Plymouth in the New Hampshire mountains on Sunday and promised to lower prescription drug prices, improve education and help heroin addicts get treatment.

It was a day after he told a Republican debate audience that he did not want to leave poor people "dying in the streets", and won praise by some pundits for delivering a restrained performance in which he largely avoided skewering his rivals.

It is not as if Trump, notorious for his inflammatory, demolition-derby style, has suddenly gone soft. At the same event in Plymouth, he reaffirmed his support for reviving the waterboarding of terrorism suspects and, if necessary, doing "much worse". He mocked "poor Jeb Bush" and talked about the "stupid people" running the government.

But the past week has revealed a mellower Trump who seems less interested in slashing and burning his way to his party's nomination for the election and more willing to view his competitors with equanimity.

His campaign has been working to moderate his image, showing another side of the boastful billionaire businessman whose candidacy has alarmed the Republican establishment and has been marked by calls for the deportation of illegal immigrants and temporarily banning Muslims from entering the US.

The effort began in earnest in Iowa, when Trump brought in an evangelical leader as a character witness, used his children as surrogates and stood on stage with his wife, Melania, who has been rarely seen on the campaign trail.

Ahead of New Hampshire's pivotal primary on Tuesday in which Trump leads in opinion polls, he has shared painful personal stories, stopped at diners to shake hands with patrons, and tried sending the message that despite his massive wealth and brash manner, he is a regular Joe.

 "He's much more of an ordinary guy than (voters) would ever expect," Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., said at a campaign stop in Tipton, New Hampshire. "He's a down-to-earth guy."