Since the political strategists are the wizards of smart, maybe they have decided to throw the election to Hillary or who or whatever the Democrats run, rather than have Trump as the nominee.
What I think they are missing is, this will probably not only throw the 2016 election, but just might be the final nail in the Republican party’s coffin.
This is the kind of stuff they pulled in Mississippi in 2014. It worked there, but I think Trump has too high a profile and too large an ego to allow it to go unpunished. I would fully expect him to make a third party run on a new party ticket that he organizes and controls.
I believe you have hit on one aspect of the open hate shown for Trump.
The GOP establishment would definitely rather have Hillary as president than a political outsider like Trump who is a loose canon on deck to them.
They know Hillary will operate within the accepted boundaries of the Uniparty system and that they will still get their share of the spoils.
An outsider like Trump who promises to upset the Washington DC Honeypot is a threat to the power and wealth they expect from the system.