And at a Monday night briefing, Trump dished out numerous incendiary claims over nearly 30 minutes that was mostly a monologue about violence in “Democrat-run cities.” He alleged the violence is caused by “left-wing indoctrination,” insisted “the violent rioters share Biden talking points” and proclaimed “paint is not bullets” when asked about the protesting Trump backers in Portland, where one Trump supporter was shot and killed over the weekend.

The dichotomy highlights the challenge facing the GOP with nine weeks left in the campaign: How to make Trump seem more palatable to voters who may largely agree with his policies but are turned off by his tactics, while still letting Trump rile up his base.

After the RNC, Republican strategists and pollsters started pushing to see a little more of Melania’s softer tone, and a little less of Donald’s hard-edged style in the campaign’s final push. But the president, aides say, won’t be changing his take-no-prisoners approach, and the first lady has shown no signs she plans to take on a bigger role with the campaign. So for anyone who didn’t catch the convention, it could be like nothing ever changed.

“You can’t soften Donald Trump, he is what he is,” said longtime Republican pollster and communications guru Frank Luntz. “You send the president to ensure that the base votes and you send the first lady to ensure that swing voters will give you a hearing.”

At the RNC, the GOP tried to straddle both sides.

With some presentations, they showed off Trump as he often defines himself: the “law and order” president who is tough on crime, immigration and China. But numerous speakers also defined Trump as caring and supportive.

Trump’s children alternated between attacks against Democrats and the media, and descriptions of Trump as an attentive father who isn’t racist. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told a story about Trump checking in on her after surgery. Andrew Pollack, whose daughter was murdered in the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, said Trump listened to grieving parents. Longtime Trump friend and former professional football player Herschel Walker described Trump going to Disney World with his kids.

“I have seen his true conscience,” said Ja’Ron Smith, a deputy assistant to the president and one of the highest-ranking Black men in the administration. “I just wish every American could see the deep empathy he showed to families whose loved ones were killed in senseless violence.”

At the same time convention speakers painted a bleak picture of “Joe Biden’s America,” they tried just as hard to convince people the president cares.

“People need to understand who the president is and how he formulates his priorities and it was important for people to hear from people close to the president,” said Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager and informal adviser who traveled with Trump to New Hampshire on Friday for the president’s first post-RNC rally. “I think it all gets lost because he’s so tough all the time.”

The focus on Trump’s character comes amid criticism the president hindered the country’s coronavirus response and has been unsympathetic about the 180,000-plus dead Americans.

“It is what it is,” Trump said when reminded of the death toll from the virus. "But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it."

The line has now become a Democratic Party catchphrase.

Multiple officials said the RNC character witnesses weren’t an attempt to rebrand the president, just a chance to share stories Americans wouldn’t otherwise hear from the media.

“It’s not that they’re trying to cast the president in a different light,” said Bryan Lanza, a lobbyist who worked on Trump's campaign and transition. “I think they’re looking to expand the lens. There has been a lot of noise in the past 3½ years from Twitter and cable news, and if that didn’t exist you’d be hearing more of these individual stories.”

The emphasis on empathy — especially from the women in Trump’s life — is part of a campaign push to win over women voters. And it can be attributed to recent polls that show Biden with a significant lead over the president when voters are asked questions about which candidate “cares about people like you.” An August CNN poll shows Biden with an 11-point advantage in that area.

“I think they all gave a glimpse of the president who most Americans might not see but that said, ‘He is a fighter and he’s going to say what he thinks, and put America first,’” said Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh.

Strategists, aides and pollsters pointed to the first lady’s speech as a template for making the Trump vote more palatable to those teetering between the president and Biden. Her remarks, delivered from a recently renovated Rose Garden, offered sympathy to those who died from the pandemic, made the case for the administration’s work on religious freedom and talked about opioid addiction and the mental health troubles facing Americans. Notably, when she touched on racial unrest, the first lady encouraged people to “reflect on our mistakes” and “look to a way forward.”

“A lot of people say, ‘I like him, but these things bother me,’” said Republican strategist Alice Stewart. “But the convention demonstrating a softer side gives permission to those that have had reservations.”

In the coming nine weeks, she added, “it would be wise to show more heart and less harshness, and to convince undecided voters they’re making the right choice by supporting this president.”

Instead of bashing the media, yelling into the microphone, or sharing an apocalyptic vision of life without Donald Trump, like Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who dramatically called the president “the bodyguard of Western civilization,” the first lady was calm, empathetic and even willing to use the word “mistake,” although she glossed over administration policies that have sparked controversy and outrage.

“That’s what swing voters want to see,” Luntz said. “Trump’s policies are acceptable to them. Biden’s persona is acceptable to them. And they have to choose one or the other.”

Strategists and aides say the first lady is one of the most underutilized weapons in Trump’s political toolbox. But they doubt she will become any more involved in campaigning than she has in the past, regardless of any excitement for her to do so. In 2016, she was a reluctant surrogate for her husband and noted that she preferred to be with her teenage son, Barron.

But she did come through when the president needed her most, making a solo appearance in Pennsylvania in the days leading up to the election, and when she publicly accepted Trump’s apology for his “Access Hollywood” comments about grabbing women without their consent. She called his words “unacceptable and offensive” but urged people to accept his repentance, too.

The first lady’s Tuesday night performance was an attempt to erase the memory of her 2016 RNC speech, during which she plagiarized passages from Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention address. But it was also in line with other incumbent first ladies, like Laura Bush in 2004, and Michelle Obama in 2012, who made a convention pitch for a second term by humanizing their husbands.

Following the first lady’s speech, which was written with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, her chief of staff Stephanie Grisham and others in her office, White House staffers buzzed with comparisons to “Jackie O.” But like Jacqueline Kennedy, Melania has shown a preference for a private life, despite her famous last name and loud, dynastic family.

The American public doesn’t often hear from the Slovenia-born first lady, for whom English is a second language. Her speeches are notably short, and her appearances largely go under the radar, unless she makes a sartorial decision that sparks controversy, like when she wore a green jacket that read, “I really don’t care do u [sic]?” on a trip to visit children in detention camps in Texas.

“Part of the reason she was so effective is because she hasn’t saturated the media. So when she speaks, people listen,” said a person close to the White House.

The first lady’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Trump, on the other hand, will campaign in full force during September and October. He will be bouncing around to campaign events at airport hangars — able to show off Air Force One — and will even do more retail politics, like unannounced visits to local restaurants and stores, according to officials. At his first post-convention rally in New Hampshire on Friday night, the president showed no sign he planned to embrace a softer side.

“You know what I say? Protesters, your ass. I don’t talk about my ass,” he said. “They’re not protesters. Those aren’t protesters. Those are anarchists, they’re agitators, they’re rioters, they’re looters.”