Republican Steve Hilton participates in a gubernatorial debate at East Los Angeles College on May 5. Hilton has largely kept mum about President Donald Trump during his campaign. 

Since launching his campaign for governor, Republican Steve Hilton, the former Fox News host and aide to former British Prime Minister David Cameron, has done his best to steer the conversation away from President Donald Trump. 

That’s for good reason, of course. Trump’s approval rating in California is -45, according to a Newsweek poll released Monday. Hilton’s Democratic opponents, meanwhile, invoke Trump’s name every chance they get. 

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Despite Hilton keeping mum on Trump, the latest polls have him either in first or second place thanks to his ability to diagnose the many problems facing the state and lay the blame for them at the feet of the Democrats in power. 

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But while it looks like Hilton, a charming and facile speaker, will indeed secure a top-two finish in the primary and move on to the November ballot, his feelings about Trump will receive renewed scrutiny. Over the weekend, I spoke to Hilton by phone for an hour, and he gave me a preview of how that might play out. 

“Right from the beginning, my support for Trump politically was based on the substance of what he was arguing,” Hilton told me. “But the........

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