Trump threatens third-party run for president
Donald Trump, current GOP frontrunner, is threatening to launch a third-party presidential campaign if he doesn’t win in the primaries. That’s depending on whether the Republican National Committee is “fair’’ to him.
“The RNC has not been supportive. They were always supportive when I was a contributor. I was their fair-haired boy,’’ Trump told The Hill in an interview Wednesday. “The RNC has been, I think, very foolish.’’
If he doesn’t get the Republican nomination, Trump said there’s a chance he would run as a third-party candidate.
“So many people want me to, if I don’t win…I’ll have to see how I’m being treated by the Republicans,’’ he said. “Absolutely, if they’re not fair, that would be a factor.’’
The Washington Postreported July 8 that RNC chairman Reince Priebus called Trump to ask him to “tone down’’ his public remarks.
Ten days later, Trump told a crowd in Iowa that Sen. John McCain was only “a war hero because he was captured,’’ immediately setting off many fellow Republican candidates on social media.
In South Carolina on Tuesday, he called the state’s senior senator and fellow presidential candidate Lindsey Graham an “idiot,’’ before giving out Graham’s personal cell phone number and urging audience members to call it. He also mocked Jeb Bush, Rick Perry, and Hillary Clinton during the speech.
And in June, Trump called some immigrants crossing over from the Mexican border “killers and rapists.’’
According to Real Clear Politics’ national polling average, Trump is leading all other Republican candidates for the GOP presidential nomination.
He credits his surge in the polls to his honesty and “leadership.’’
“I’m not surrounded by all sorts of pollsters and PR people,’’ Trump said.
Clearly.
2016 presidential candidates
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