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Trump has already passed the 8 state rule. Cruz is not even close and probably will not. The issue of what happens if no one crosses is moot.

To me, this is the big problem. If they change the rule to allow other candidates to be placed in nomination, they are changing it only to screw Trump.

One of the things I don’t know is what happens if he has less than 1237 delegates, but no one else meets the 8 state rule?

I suspect that delegates pledged to other candidates can not vote in the first round if their candidate is not nominated. Now, does nomination really require more than 1237, or does it require more than 50% of the votes cast? If Trump is the only nominee is he the winner?

The rule is new, but as you were saying, it is the rule. Changing it now is going to disadvantage Trump. That is just not right.

My first reaction is to agree with your assessment, if Trump is the only candidate qualified under the eight state rule (Trump not having won outright on the first ballot with 1237 votes) then he is the only one who should be scheduled in subsequent ballots.

But then one must consider whether he continues to fail to get 1237 votes, is the convention doomed to eternal stalemate? Normally, we would say that rules ought not to be changed contemporaneously with the event, especially if those making the changes are not representatives democratically elected which appears to be the case here. In other words those who would change the rules as they go along are appointees of regional party apparatus and not necessarily representatives of victorious primary candidates like Trump. If those controlling the rules were truly representative of the voters, I might have a different point of view.

In the event should such a scenario unwind it seems clear that Trump will be able to horse trade and get enough votes to put himself over the majority threshold. Evidently, the fear is that after the initial ballot support for Trump will erode rather than grow by horsetrading. Meanwhile, the elites will jigger the rules and I think that would be inappropriate and wrong-because they are not representative of the voters.

The republican nominee will be the one that gets 50%+1 of the first vote. Most of the delegates will be committed to however their state/precinct/caucus voted and who they were sent there to vote for. About four or five states have it where the delegates can change their vote for the first ballot (South Dakota being one of them, which had the thread about that).

On the second ballot (and the rest of them) - you can vote for who you want to. I imagine that Rubio can tell his delegates to vote for xxx, and Kasich can tell his to vote for yyyy and hope that their delegates follow their direction. I doubt if Cruz is close to Trump that he would have his delegates vote for zzzz, but perhaps.

I think it was upthread that someone surmised that Trump could promise Cruz a job so as to get Cruz's delegates.

I'm reminded of Nixon when he didn't fight the recount when he lost in 1960. To spare the country all of the drama. I imagine that something like that may happen if the Republicans see something like that happening. I would like to think so anyway. They will definitely need to come together at the convention to have any chance of beating Hillary.

Trump has already passed the 8 state rule. Cruz is not even close and probably will not.

Yes, Cruz is close. Utah will be his 5th. He's a lock to win several more of those flyover states like Nebraska, Montana, South Dakota, Indiana, etc. and I imagine an unexpected state like Maine will be tossed in there. If the GOPe change the 8-state rule, it will be stop Cruz, not Trump, because that rule would make it easy for them to rally behind Cruz against Trump if they wanted to.