Republican bigwigs have been losing confidence in Donald Trump ever since he kept using his sizable soap box to go after that judge in the Trump University case. And now that Trump’s poll numbers have fallen below 30%, even more big names may be finding themselves reluctant to endorse the presumptive GOP nominee.
And now, according to sources, the RNC is asking state parties what they think – and the informal poll isn’t turning out well for a certain New York real estate investor. Reince Priebus is reportedly calling state delegations to talk about the latest push for an RNC mutiny.
Previous attempts to stop Donald Trump’s nomination have either fizzled quickly or lost steam as conservative leaders struggled to find any serious contender for the nomination, particularly after 18 qualified individuals lost to Donald Trump in the first place. But as Trump’s popularity weakens, even the Republican leadership may be taking the downturn seriously.
The RNC isn’t denying the calls are happening, either (though RNC’s chief strategist Sean Spicer strongly implied that they were just “routine” discussions).
There are two possible reasons that for the Trump-related anxiety. One, Republicans are starting to wonder if Donald Trump isn’t just ruining their chances at the White House, but also their ability to hang on to the House and Senate. Typically, a Republican Presidential candidate would campaign and fundraise for downticket races, but so far, Donald Trump has been primarily concerned with, well, Donald Trump.
Trump says he’s barely getting started, but by this time in 2012, Romney was already locking down major donors and expressing support for his Republican allies. Trump is sending out urgent requests to buoy his own campaign.
The other reason? Donald Trump hasn’t just forgotten to raise money, he’s forgotten to spend it. According to NBC’s senior political editor, Hillary Clinton is outspending Donald Trump on advertising by 100%.
This is incredibly unusual to say the least, especially when you consider that Trump is, currently, the worst performing Republican Presidential candidate since Bob Dole’s 1996 attempt to forestall his career selling erectile dysfunction medication.
Trump hasn’t even spent as much money on campaign staff as Bernie Sanders, and Bernie Sanders hasn’t been technically running a Presidential campaign since March.
It’s no wonder Reince Preibus is taking murmurs of a GOP uprising seriously. Mitt Romney has ensured that a long-time supporter snagged a top spot on the GOP Rules Committee – the very committee any upstart revolution will need to control to have any hope of upending Donald Trump. Enid Mickelson is…not…a Trump fan.
Maybe those rumors that Trump plans to abort his Presidential campaign for a television berth might not be so silly after all.