As Donald Trump’s path to the Republican nomination becomes clearer, he is beginning to informally consult with a cadre of party insiders, the Washington Post reports. And who better to advise the well-connected New Yorker on running a campaign based wholly on populist fear than Rudy Giuliani?

Giuliani counts Trump as a “close personal friend,” and has made several phone calls advising him on campaign matters, he said. He alleged that a small circle of other powerful Republicans has recently done the same, but declined to name names. Per the Post, we are to take this news as evidence that the GOP establishment is finally beginning to see the light on their likely nominee, and that he is welcoming their advances.

“We’ve been talking. Donald and me, Donald and a few other friends who know politics. He calls to check things out or I’ll call him to say, ‘Donald, you’re going too far’ or ‘What you said was great’ or maybe ‘Change it a bit.’ It’s nothing formal. It’s kind of a running conversation,” the former mayor said.

Usually, when a mainstream conservative talks about Donald Trump going too far, he’s talking about things like the mogul’s proposal that we ban all Muslims from entering the country—and its true, Giuliani has publicly stated that such a ban would be unconstitutional. But considering Giuliani’s fierce defense of the NYPD Muslim surveillance program that was instituted the year after he left office, you have to wonder how much he really means it.

Image via Getty. Contact the author at andy@gawker.com.