In this April 21, 2016, photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton listens during a campaign event in Hartford, Conn. Clinton can’t win enough delegates on April 25 to officially knock Bernie... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this April 21, 2016, photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton listens during a campaign event in Hartford, Conn. Clinton can’t win enough delegates on April 25 to officially knock Bernie Sanders out of the race for president, but she can erase any honest doubts still left that she... (Associated Press) 
 
 BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A confident Donald Trump told supporters on Saturday that he's not changing his pitch to voters, a day after his chief adviser assured Republican officials their party's front-runner would show more restraint while campaigning. 
 
 "You know, being presidential's easy — much easier than what I have to do," he told thousands at a rally in Bridgeport, Connecticut. "Here, I have to rant and rave. I have to keep you people going. Otherwise you're going to fall asleep on me, right?" 
 
 Trump declared to the crowd that he has no intention of reversing any of his provocative policy plans, including building a wall along the length of the Southern border. 
 
 "Everything I say I'm going to do, folks, I'll do," he said. 
 
 Trump's new chief adviser, Paul Manafort, met Thursday with top Republican officials and told them his candidate, known for his over-the-top persona and brashness, has been "projecting an image." 
 
 "The part that he's been playing is now evolving," Manafort said. 
 
 At a rally in Waterbury, Connecticut, earlier Saturday, Trump joked about how it's easy to be presidential, making a series of faux somber faces. But he said told the crowd he can be serious and policy-minded when he has to be. 
 
 Manafort "said, 'you know, Donald can be different when he's in a room.' Who isn't," asked Trump. "When I'm out here talking to you people, I've got to be different." 
 
 The Republican front-runner and most of his rivals in both parties were out campaigning Saturday across the quintet of Northeastern states holding primaries on Tuesday, including Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island and Connecticut. For the Republicans, in particular, the stakes are high as Trump looks to sweep the remaining contests and reach the required 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, while his rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich look to thwart his efforts and force the race into a contested convention. 
 
 Trump revived his birther criticism of rival Cruz, which he has previously used to suggest the Texas senator is ineligible to run for president. 
 
 "Rafael! Straight out of the hills of Canada!" he declared, referring to Cruz by his given name. Most experts say that Cruz is eligible to serve in the White House even though he was born to an American mother on Canadian soil, but Trump has worked to sow doubts. 
 
 Cruz, in Pennsylvania on Saturday, addressed around 1,000 supporters in a high school outside Pittsburgh, and though the reception was raucous, the crowd didn't know how to react to the Texas senator's opening by saying, "Let me say something that is profoundly painful for someone who grew up as a fan of the Houston Oilers, God bless the Pittsburgh Steelers." 
 
 Cruz said Tuesday "is going to be a pivotal day," but he also traveled on Saturday to Indiana, which doesn't vote until next month. Trump is thought to be favored in Pennsylvania, while Cruz's deep evangelical roots could give him a boost in Indiana. 
 
 Cruz also rebuked Trump's recent suggestions that building separate transgender bathrooms is "discriminatory" and costly, saying Saturday that it should be "the choice of the given location, of the given local government to allow that, to provide for that." 
 
 Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton also campaigned in Connecticut on Saturday. At a round-table event, she discussed ways to raise wages, promote early childhood education and reduce the pay gap between men and women with some of New Haven's working families. 
 
 "Equal pay — we shouldn't be talking about it in 2016. It is almost embarrassing," Clinton said. 
 
 Clinton heard workers describe their struggles with employers, home foreclosure and low wages. Clinton said it was "way past time that we have a raise in the nationwide minimum wage" of $7.25 an hour and said the nation should support cities and states like New York and California "that are willing to put a higher floor under low-wage workers." 
 
 Clinton's rival, Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, spoke to a boisterous crowd of mostly young people in Baltimore where he railed against big banks and highlighted his differences with Clinton on everything from the minimum wage to free trade agreements. 
 
 He hammered at "disastrous trade policies," describing them as not a sexy issue but an important issue, saying that "we are seeing corporation after corporation shut down in the United States throw millions of workers out in the street, people who are earning a living wage." 
 
 "I oppose every one of these disastrous trade agreements. She supported almost every one of them," he said, referring to Clinton, to a chorus of cheers. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Ken Thomas in New Haven, Connecticut, Susan Haigh in Waterbury, Connecticut and Vivian Salama in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| Photo 
 
 As Donald J. Trump, who leads his two Republican opponents in both votes and delegates, begins preparing his campaign for a general election, he told voters in Connecticut on Saturday that they should not expect him to start “toning it down.” 
 
 Mr. Trump’s message at two stops in Connecticut — first in Waterbury, and later in Bridgeport — seemed to contradict the closed-door pitch his newly installed campaign chief, Paul Manafort, brought to the Republican National Committee’s spring meeting in Florida on Thursday. 
 
 There, in a slide show, Mr. Manafort assured members that Mr. Trump was “evolving” and simply playing a part with his incendiary style of campaigning, which has helped drive him to the front of the race but has caused party leaders to worry that Republicans will be punished in November. 
 
 On Saturday, Mr. Trump seemed to view Mr. Manafort’s presentation slightly differently. 
 
 “Paul was down in Florida and he said, ‘You know, Donald might be changing a little bit over a period of time and he — maybe he’ll tone it down, maybe he won’t, but who knows what happens?’ ” Mr. Trump told a crowd in Waterbury, before rejecting this notion. 
 
 “I sort of don’t like toning it down,” he said. “Isn’t it nice that I’m not one of these teleprompter guys?” 
 
 Later, in Bridgeport, Mr. Trump again addressed Mr. Manafort’s comments, which have prompted some charges of duplicity from Mr. Trump’s rivals. 
 
 “He says, ‘Donald Trump knows, he’s really smart, and he will be different when he’s in private,’ ” Mr. Trump said. “Everybody is!” 
 
 But he acknowledged that he understood the calls, including from his wife, Melania, and his oldest daughter, Ivanka, for him to be “more presidential.” 
 
 “I started thinking, and I said I can, you know being presidential is easy, much easier than what I have to do,” Mr. Trump said, before quickly adding that, as a colorful entertainer-turned-politician, he might risk boring his audiences if he pivots too much toward general-election propriety. 
 
 “Here, I have to rant and rave,” he said. “I have to keep you people going. Otherwise you’ll fall asleep on me.”
– So much for a changed Donald Trump. He told supporters on Saturday that he's not changing his pitch to voters, a day after his chief adviser assured Republican officials their party's front-runner would show more restraint while campaigning, reports the AP. "I sort of don’t like toning it down,” he said at a rally in Connecticut, per the New York Times. “Isn’t it nice that I’m not one of these teleprompter guys?” Trump also declared to the crowd that he has no intention of reversing any of his provocative policy plans, including building a wall along the length of the Southern border. "Everything I say I'm going to do, folks, I'll do," he said. Trump's new chief adviser, Paul Manafort, met Thursday with top Republican officials and told them his candidate has been "projecting an image." The "part that he's been playing is now evolving," Manafort said. At a rally in Waterbury, Trump joked about acting presidential, making a series of faux somber faces. He also revived his birther criticism of rival Ted Cruz, which he has previously used to suggest the Texas senator is ineligible to run for president. "Rafael! Straight out of the hills of Canada!" he declared, referring to Cruz by his given name and the country of his birth. The Republican front-runner and most of his rivals in both parties were out campaigning Saturday across the Northeastern states holding primaries on Tuesday: Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.