Just please be quiet. Don't talk

epublicans have all but run out of reasons to hope their presumptive presidential nominee might change his tune.

And Donald Trump is doing nothing to console or encourage them, even after a series of transgressions he made just this week. Instead, the GOP standard-bearer effectively told party leaders: sit down, and shut up.

"Our leaders have to get a lot tougher. And be quiet. Just please be quiet. Don't talk. Please be quiet," Trump said at a rally in Atlanta Wednesday afternoon. "They have to get tougher, they have to get sharper, they have to get smarter."

The directive comes as Trump finds himself again embroiled in controversy and bad news of his own making.

The aftermath of the deadliest shooting in American history presented the party with an opportunity to show leadership in a time of crisis and anxiety, and at a time when voters believe the country is on the wrong track and think Trump is better at handling national security and terrorism issues than Hillary Clinton.

Instead, GOP leaders and lawmakers find themselves again wringing their hands over Trump's actions, going to great lengths to avoid mentioning his name altogether. Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the GOP's whip, told Politico he wouldn't comment on Trump until November 8. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters at his weekly press conference he would not answer questions about his party's nominee. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who once ran for president, told an AP reporter that the party didn't technically have a nominee yet.

With a month to go before the party convention in Cleveland, candidates and incumbents who will share a ballot with Trump in November have moved on to shape their own races and tactics in this environment. Congressional leaders may not be far behind.

Since Sunday's attack in Orlando, Fla., that left 49 dead and many more wounded, Trump has only exacerbated his party's concerns about him: he congratulated himself for calling the shooting an act of terror, suggested that President Obama sympathized with ISIS terrorists, expanded his call to temporarily ban Muslims from the country to include immigrants from regions of terrorist activity, and banned the Washington Post from covering his campaign in light of a negative headline.

At a rally in North Carolina on Tuesday, Trump criticized soldiers for stealing money in Iraq, though his campaign argued the candidate was referring to Iraqi soldiers. And on Wednesday, Trump said he would meet with the National Rifle Association to discuss banning anyone on the government's terrorist watch list from buying guns.