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 these reasons, Trump on Thursday called for a halt to efforts to have the Republican National Committee declare him the party's presumptive nominee.
“While I greatly appreciate the RNC's desire to make me their presumptive nominee, and even though they have far more votes than necessary to do so, I feel, for the sake of party unity, that they should not go ahead with that.” . That's the plan, but I have to do it the old-fashioned way, and finish the process at the ballot box.
“Thank you to the Republican National Committee for the respect and dedication you have shown me! Trump 2024,” the former president added.
Trump dominates the Republican primary contests so far, winning both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary with more than 50% of the vote.
All other contenders for the Republican nomination have withdrawn except for former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who is trailing Trump in the polls.
While Trump criticized Haley and threatened her donors, many Republicans urged her to withdraw from the race.
Trump ally David Bossie shared the idea of declaring the contest over in a resolution that could have been discussed at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting in Las Vegas next week, according to Reuters.
But when the former president dropped the plan on Thursday, Bossie withdrew it.
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said after Trump's victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday that the Republican Party needs unity to win, according to NBC News.
“I look at the map and the path we're on forward, and I don't see that for Nikki Haley,” McDaniel said.
“I think there's a message coming out of voters, and it's very clear: We need to unite around our ultimate nominee, which will be Donald Trump,” she said.
Word of the decision angered some RNC members.
Oscar Brock, a committee member from Tennessee, said the decision “certainly violates the intent” of the Republican National Committee's rules for primaries.
“The rules specifically state that you are not the right person until you have 50 percent plus one of the required delegates for the convention,” he said, according to NBC News.
“I think we will be more open to allowing more people to have a say in this process before declaring it over,” Brock said.
Haley responded sharply to news of the resolution proposal.
“Who cares what the RNC says? We will let millions of Republican voters across the country decide who should be our party's nominee, not a group of Washington insiders,” her campaign said in a statement.
Haley campaign on this topic: “Who cares what the Republican Party says?” https://t.co/ci1uHAROD0 pic.twitter.com/bdEuBqxGEh
– David Weigel (@daveweigel) January 25, 2024
Trump and Haley will meet again in the South Carolina primary on February 24. Then 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 US News & News. World report.
This article originally appeared in The Western Journal.
