Donald Trump on Thursday signed the Republican National Committee pledge saying he will support the Republican nominee – and therefore not run as an independent candidate – if he loses the GOP nod.
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“Trump has shown far more durability as a candidate than anyone could have imagined, including the Donald himself, [and] he is, in fact, a credible threat to win the 2016 Republican presidential nomination“, O’Connell said.
The magnate’s promise comes nearly a month after the first Republican Party primary debate, an event at which one of the moderators asked the candidates whether they would mount independent campaigns if they did not win the party’s nomination.
In public, some of Trump’s rivals took his announcement as an opportunity to try to undercut him, echoing attacks of recent days and weeks on his spotty history of supporting Republican policies.
In a sign of his growing stature, he pointed out it was Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus who had brought the pledge to Trump to sign, and not he who had gone calling.
By contrast his chief rivals – Clinton and perceived establishment choice Jeb Bush for the Republicans – were in the pockets of lobbyists, he said.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has declined by 4 points to 8 percent, where he is tied with Sen.
At the August. 6 debate, Trump was the only candidate out of the 17 who was unwilling to support the eventual nominee, or rule out a third-party bid.
Trump said that while the Iran deal was “negotiated by totally incompetent people“, the US has lost the power of sanctions.
Campaign lawyers contacted by CNN pointed out that the pledge is not a legally binding document.
In an interview with Hewitt later in the day, another business leader running for the GOP nomination – former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina – answered questions similar to the ones asked of Trump.
Mr. Trump’s loyalty to the party and its principles has come under increasing scrutiny as his poll numbers have risen. There had been no doubts about the intentions of the Republicans’ other major presidential contenders headed into the debate, and they quickly lined up Thursday to sign the pledge.
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Trump, who has made opposition to illegal immigration a hallmark of his campaign in the November 2016 election, told a news conference in New York that, “We’re a nation that speaks English”. “So for that reason, I have signed the pledge”, Mr Trump said.
