The latest twist in Hillary Clinton’s enduring e-mail scandal notwithstanding, Donald Trump’s path to the White House is still looking narrow. After weeks of bad headlines and scandals, the Republican nominee faces dwindling support among women, minorities and even his core supporter base. Trailing Clinton in nearly every national poll, Trump is even at risk of losing a number of traditionally deep red states. And while he seems to be in denial about his position in the polls, a New York magazine report reveals that Trump’s closest allies—both past and present—see the writing on the wall and are wrestling with the notion of the campaign that could have been.

Trump clearly tapped into a movement bigger than himself when he first descended Trump Tower’s golden escalator in July of last year and announced his candidacy for president, but he never managed to expand the Republican Party as his boosters promised. Now, as his unlikely campaign hurtles toward what is expected to be a resounding loss, Trump’s closest advisers and allies are already pointing fingers as the recriminations begin. “This thing was doable if we did it the right way,” one Trump adviser told New York’s Gabriel Sherman. And there are few people able to understand this potential missed opportunity better than Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. The seasoned political operative had reportedly tried to curtail Trump’s erratic behavior for months before he resigned from the billionaire’s campaign over the summer. “The best thing we can do is to have you move into a cave for the next four months,” Manafort told Trump during a meeting, according to Sherman’s report. “If you’re not on the campaign trail, the focus is on her, and we win. Whoever the focus is on will lose.” The advice was sage. Clinton’s biggest surges in the polls can be attributed to Trump missteps, such as his unrelenting attacks on the Khan family and his hot-mic scandal. But Trump reportedly chafed at Manafort’s efforts to professionalize his campaign. “His ego couldn’t handle it,” one Republican close to the campaign told Sherman, adding,“He’d get into the lead and then he would veer off and start defending his interests and his honor and it had nothing to do with what people actually care about. He’s not disciplined.”

Battling a series of bad headlines of his own, Manafort was replaced in mid-August with media firebrand Stephen Bannon, who Trump appointed C.E.O. of his presidential bid, and G.O.P. pollster Kellyanne Conway, who stepped into the role of campaign manager. The latter took a different tack than her predecessor, more akin to a mother raising a child. “It all has to be his decision in the end,” Conway, who has emerged as arguably Trump’s most effective ally, told Sherman. For instance, rather than telling Trump—who frequently gets himself in trouble in 140 characters or less—to delete Twitter, Conway simply suggested that he include a smattering of more positive tweets. “I would say, ‘Here are a couple of cool things we should tweet today.’ It’s like saying to someone, ‘How about having two brownies and not six?’” she said. Conway also admitted that sometimes the most effective method of getting Trump to heed her advice is to “go on TV to communicate” with him.

But in the final stretch of one of the most tumultuous elections in modern U.S. history, even Conway is showing signs of losing faith in Trump’s bid for the Oval Office. Last week, she admitted, “We are behind,” while making the rounds on the Sunday morning shows. And like her fellow Trump surrogate, Chris Christie, the campaign manager has, at times, absolved herself of responsibility for Trump’s actions by saying, “He’s the candidate.” She also conceded to New York that a number of her suggestions “never saw the light of day” and that “we had too little time to do certain meaningful things in a consequential way.”

One top Trump adviser darkly characterized the state of the Republican nominee’s campaign. “Think of the bunker right before Hitler killed himself. Donald’s in denial. They’re all in denial,” the anonymous source told New York. But most of those close to Trump, especially his family, seem to be preparing for the next act. Ivanka is fighting to preserve her own brand. Melania seems ready to further retreat from the spotlight. Trump’s son-in-law and key adviser, Jared Kushner, is reportedly plotting how best to monetize Trumpism after the election. And even Donald seems to have come to terms with potential defeat. “I got really mad at him the other day,” Conway confessed to New York. “He said, ‘I think we’ll win, and if not, that’s okay too. And I said, ‘It’s not okay! You can’t say that! Your dry-cleaning bill is like the annual salaries of the people who came to your rallies, and they believe in you!’”