Former President Donald Trump wants to win at everything he does, and when it comes to the Republican presidential nomination, he plans to win it.
For those reasons, Trump on Thursday called a halt to efforts to have the Republican National Committee declare him the party’s presumptive nominee.
“While I greatly appreciate the Republican National Committee (RNC) wanting to make me their PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE, and while they have far more votes than necessary to do it, I feel, for the sake of PARTY UNITY, that they should NOT go forward with this plan, but that I should do it the ‘Old Fashioned’ way, and finish the process off AT THE BALLOT BOX,” he posted on Truth Social.
“Thank you to the RNC for the Respect and Devotion you have shown me! TRUMP2024,” the former president added.
Trump has dominated the two GOP primary contests to date, winning both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary with more than 50 percent of the vote.
All other contenders for the Republican nomination have dropped out except for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who trails Trump in the polls.
While Trump has lashed out at Haley and threatened her donors, many Republicans have urged her to drop out of the race.
Trump ally David Bossie shared the idea of declaring the contest over in a resolution that could have been discussed at the RNC winter meeting in Las Vegas next week, according to Reuters.
When the former president shot down the plan Thursday, however, Bossie withdrew it.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel had said after Trump’s New Hampshire win on Tuesday that the GOP needs unity to win, according to NBC News.
“I’m looking at the map and the path going forward, and I don’t see it for Nikki Haley,” McDaniel said.
“I do think there’s a message that’s coming out from the voters, which is very clear: We need to unite around our eventual nominee, which is going to be Donald Trump,” she said.
Word of the resolution irked some RNC members.
Oscar Brock, a committee member from Tennessee, said the resolution “certainly violates the intent” of RNC rules for the primaries.
“The rules specifically say you’re not the guy until you’ve gotten 50 percent plus one of the delegates required for the convention,” he said, according to NBC News.
“I would think that we would be more open to letting more people have a say in this process before declaring it over,” Brock said.
Should Nikki Haley drop out?
Haley responded sharply to the news that the resolution had been proposed.
“Who cares what the RNC says? We’ll let millions of Republican voters across the country decide who should be our party’s nominee, not a bunch of Washington insiders,” her campaign said in a statement.
Haley campaign on this: “Who cares what the RNC says?” https://t.co/ci1uHAROD0 pic.twitter.com/bdEuBqxGEh
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) January 25, 2024
Trump and Haley meet again in the Feb. 24 South Carolina primary. After that comes Super Tuesday on March 5, when Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and American Samoa vote, according to U.S. News and World Report.
