Trump picks Twitter fight with 'Morning Joe' hosts after latest campaign shakeup

Donald Trump’s new campaign manager insisted Sunday that the Republican nominee’s long-awaited “pivot” to a more presidential tone is underway.

“He doesn’t hurl personal insults,” Kellyanne Conway said on CNN. “What he’s doing is he’s challenging the Democratic Party. He’s challenging Hillary Clinton and President Obama’s legacy.”

Except when he’s watching cable news shows like MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” as was clearly the case Monday morning.

“Tried watching low-rated @Morning_Joe this morning, unwatchable!” Trump tweeted, turning his attention to the show’s co-host, Mika Brzezinski. “@morningmika is off the wall, a neurotic and not very bright mess!”

Trump then threatened to tell the “real story” about Brzezinski and host Joe Scarborough.

“Some day, when things calm down, I’ll tell the real story of @JoeNBC and his very insecure long-time girlfriend, @morningmika,” Trump tweeted. “Two clowns!”

Scarborough fired back on Twitter, mocking Trump’s apparent priorities.

“@HillaryClinton is targeting key swing states today while Trump starts his day obsessed with cable news hosts while channeling Gawker,” the conservative talk-show host tweeted. “SAD!”

“Neurotic and not very bright?” Scarborough added. “Look in the mirror.”

The Twitter spat comes days after Trump had appeared, albeit briefly, to change his tone.

“Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing,” Trump said at a rally on Thursday, a day after Conway was promoted to manage his campaign. “I have done that, and I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain.”

On Friday, Trump traveled to flood-ravaged Louisiana to survey the damage. He’s also switched to reading from the teleprompter at rallies — a practice he used to criticize Hillary Clinton for embracing.

The Twitter fight with Scarborough and co. apparently stepped on the message Trump was trying to send Monday morning. Not long after he went after the “Morning Joe” hosts, Trump sent out a statement calling for the Clinton Foundation to be shut down.

For her part, Conway claimed on Sunday that Trump, whose campaign is regularly roiled by firestorms sparked by the candidate, just had one of the best weeks of his candidacy.

“This is the best week, I think, so far in the Trump campaign, mostly because he’s able to be himself, the authentic Donald Trump,” Conway said on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.”

“But also the pivot that he’s made is on substance,” she added.

But earlier in the week, the brash real estate mogul said he didn’t want to moderate his tone for a general election.

“Everyone talks about, ‘Oh, you’ve got to pivot,’” Trump said in an interview with WKBT-TV in La Crosse, Wis., on Tuesday. “I don’t want to pivot. I don’t want to change. You have to be you. If you start pivoting, you’re not being honest with people.”