This isn’t an original thought, but it’s one that I wish I’d have thought of saying out loud long ago.

It comes from Donnie Deutch, an MSNBC commentator, while discussing just how Donald J. Trump turns his floundering presidential campaign around.

Deutch today said the only way the Republican presidential nominee gets back into the game is to say he is sorry for all the hateful things he has said.

It’s not enough, Deutch said, for Trump to simply start sounding more “presidential.” He’ll have to tell America that he was “trying to make some kind of point” during the primary, and that he didn’t really mean it when he called for a ban on Muslims, or denigrated John McCain’s war record, or said women needed to punished if they obtained an abortion, or a Mexican-American judge couldn’t preside over a case involving Trump University.

There’s more. You get the point.

Deutch said Trump has to take “two steps back” before marching forward.

Will it happen? Will the candidate take up Deutch’s advice?

No. He’s likely a goner.