Posted on 07/23/2015 8:46:45 AM PDT by Kaslin
After a few days of vacation, I wondered whether the Donald Trump phenomenon would have burnt itself out somewhat, as it did four years ago in a summer fizzle. Instead, Trump’s polling has strengthened nearly to the same level as in the spring of 2011 among Republican primary voters. So why is Trump picking this time to threaten to leave the GOP? The Hill’s exclusive interview with the mogul this morning includes a demand for fairness from the RNC from Trump, with an explicit warning that Trump may consider a third-party run:
“The RNC has not been supportive. They were always supportive when I was a contributor. I was their fair-haired boy,” the business mogul told The Hill in a 40-minute interview from his Manhattan office at Trump Tower on Wednesday. “The RNC has been, I think, very foolish.”
Pressed on whether he would run as a third-party candidate if he fails to clinch the GOP nomination, Trump said that “so many people want me to, if I don’t win.”
“I’ll have to see how I’m being treated by the Republicans,” Trump said. “Absolutely, if they’re not fair, that would be a factor.”
Two aspects of this strike me as strange. First, it seems a tad bit whiny for a multibillionaire who publicly backed Hillary Clinton for VP seven years ago to complain that the RNC may be unfair to him. Isn’t this the same man who claims to be fearless because he’s not beholden to anyone? And what precisely would “unfairness” look like, anyway? No one’s talking about locking Trump out of the debates — at least not yet.
Trump extends the umbrella to other Republicans as well, which seems to suggest that he doesn’t want to face any tough criticism, even as he’s ripping them repeatedly from the campaign trail. That looks a bit thin-skinned, again rather surprising from a man whose selling point is his toughness and bluntness.
Second, this also looks a bit premature. Trump waited a while four years ago to start pressing the third-party run button, which ended up pressuring Republicans to come kiss the ring — most notably Mitt Romney, who took a lot of flak for it in the media due to Trump’s focus on birtherism. Trump’s ascending in the polls among Republican voters now, not descending, so why choose this moment to threaten to make their path to defeating Hillary Clinton more difficult? It’s true that some frustrated GOP voters have sympathy for a party schism, but in the past those impulses have coalesced around figures like Sarah Palin, who had a lifetime of solid conservative credentials — not someone who was backing Democrats until seven years ago, pushing Canadian-style health care reform, and demurring on action regarding late-term abortions.
Finally, one has to wonder just how seriously to take this. The threat’s not entirely an empty one, but it would take more dedication than Trump has shown thus far. His second-quarter fundraising numbers came to less than $2 million, all but $93,000 of it from his own pocket. The Republican and Democratic nominees will get on the ballots in the states because the state parties already have the infrastructure to manage that process. Ross Perot had to spend a ton of money — some his, much of it from donors — to replicate that as an independent, and so far Trump hasn’t put the time or money into the organization necessary to run a campaign within the GOP, let alone outside of the two-party system.
Trump’s most likely pulling the media’s chain and giving it a juicy narrative just for the sake of its juiciness. That’s a pretty good description of the whole Trump 2016 phenomenon, just as it was of the Trump 2012 phenomenon.
Update: Speaking of chain-pulling, here’s what Trump said about this literally the day before this interview while speaking with Dana Loesch (via Matthew Newman):
I spoke with 2016 contender Donald Trump today on my Blaze television program and asked him about sharing Lindsey Graham’s cell phone number with the public, the Planned Parenthood controversy, same sex marriage, what he would do to fix the VA, and whether he intends to run third party — which he flatly denied. Said Trump:
“I will only ever run as a Republican.”
Er … yeah.
Lots of reporters. Stopping to talk with reporters. Caught a glimpse of Trump Force One (as another FReeper dubbed his plane).
I think Cruz is the most qualified Candidate we have.
I fear he won’t get the Traction to gain the Nomination. I think he has been quietly affiliating himself with Trump for a reason. Trump is out there and the Media cannot ignore him like they have Cruz.
People act like Trump is some kind of dummy who was born with a Silver Spoon in his Mouth. He started out with $200,000,000 and turned that Money into Billions of Dollars while providing Jobs for thousands of People.
If somebody gave me $200,000,000, I would be spending the rest of my Life channeling Ben Gazzara’s character on the TV Show “Run for our Life”.
Why Trump is putting himself through this crap is known only to him. He isn’t getting any younger and maybe his Priorities have changed. I have no idea, nor does anyone else.
BTW - Cruz has been saying the same things Trump has for Years, yet he has been ignored by the Media or called a Wacko Bird by his fellow Republican Senator McCain.
I agree.
I’ll settle for either DT or Cruz.
I’ll probably just stay home if they’re gone.
I was planning to sit this one out until I heard about Trump.
I didn’t think there was anyone left to vote for.
Been off of FR for months.
Just lost all interest.
Uniparty.
Why bother?
Getting my hopes up again that we can turn this hand basket around.
“The point is, things change.”
Yeah, except with Trump, everything seems to change, according to what is to his benefit at the moment.
Not having Trump there might be the only way they can get their points made without fear anybody will call them on it. Trump would, and we already see they don’t know “How” to respond to him.
Should they succeed in getting him eliminated he’ll just have his own, and with enough fanfare to pull the voters. Imo.
At any rate...he needs to be at the debates.
Well, whatever motivation Trump has, he is the ONLY one who brought the Illegal Invader issue into the Limelight. I say this as Cruz Supporter,
Even though Cruz has been beating the drum on this for years, it took Trump about a week to expose the entire Amnesty / Comprehensive Immigration Reform BS to a new Audience.
Love him or hate him, Trump is rattling a whole bunch of Cages. Has anyone else noticed that even Queen Hillary has become background noise the past few weeks?
From Ed Morrisey. Who cares?
That seals it for me, if Trump was really in the race for America’s interests, as he claims, and not for himself, he wouldn’t even countenance running third party.
If he runs third party I’ll vote for Cruz or Walker, true conservatives, sad to say, it probably won’t do any good with Trump splitting the vote, it will probably put Hillary in there. If he goes third party, under no circumstances will I be voting for this fraud.
I don’t like Trump. I’m not a Trumpster. I support Cruz.
According to you, I’m a RINO-lover: “The anti-Trump crowd are all RINO lovers. No surprise here.”
So either Cruz is a RINO, or I’m not a RINO-lover. I hate to break it to you and the other Trumpsters, but someone can think Donald Trump is a lying phoney without being a RINO or a RINO lover.
Why would ay self respecting candidate take what amounts to a battered wife pledge? “I pledge to sick around and take it regardless of how badly I’m treated or how godawful the candidate is that you pick.”
To hades with that.
What I was saying is: I have been for Cruz all along, a proven conservative, Trump a big question mark, but were Trump to win the Repub nomination I would vote for him. Not any more, not if comes out for a third party. If he does proves to me he is a self serving fraud. He doesn’t care if he splits the vote and puts the rats in there.
Whether they shut him out of the debates is no reason to go third party, in my view. The way the polls are trending, he would win the Repub nomination anyway. No need to go third party.
“I just knew he was going to “Perot” us!”
So, your point of view then is that the gop is owed votes from conservatives? Sort of like a welfare entitlement?
What if Trump goes 3rd party, and Cruz is his VP candidate? Does that still make Trump a “self serving fraud”? It is clear that the two have a deep mutual respect for each other, so that scenario is not implausible. Especially since both are smart enough to know that a 3rd party candidacy doesn’t “split the votes”, even more so if the other 2 are different manifestations of the same cartel. A 3rd party candidacy, as evidenced by Perot, probably wins, so your statement — “He doesn’t care if he splits the vote and puts the rats in there” — has no relevance, since that wouldn’t be the plan.
Being such a third party man, makes me wonder if you are not a liberaltarian. Are you?
Obvious to me, liberaltarian are not conservatives to begin with, no wonder they are against the Repubs, who, despite the RINO’s, still have men like Cruz among them.
As to your comment about Cruz running third party VP, how do you know he would? Cruz playing 2nd fiddle to Trump? 2nd fiddle to someone who it is doubtful as to whether he even is a true blue conservative? Were he to do so, I would lose respect for him.
For your benefit, I will AGAIN define my take on how to identify a RINO.
A RINO is one who attacks other republicans but never attacks a democrat.
Has Cruz attacked any other republican candidate?
The answer is NO.
Therefore Cruz is not a RINO in my definition.
And if you are not for Trump, that is acceptable to me.
That does not make you my enemy. This is beginning of primary season. Freepers can support any candidate of their choice, but hopefully it is not a liberal republican. You will not find any anti-anybody posts from me. I try to stay positive about candidate of my choice.
And Perot stood a good chance until he nominated a senile general as his running mate and people lost confidence in both of them.
And Perot stood a good chance until he nominated a senile general as his running mate and people lost confidence in both of them.
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