'Dump Trump' won't happen. But GOP elite could still hurt him.
| Washington
Stop it. The Republican Party is not going to dump Donald Trump at its national convention in Cleveland in July.聽
Yes, talk about denying Trump the nomination is spiking in the wake of his attacks on a Latino federal judge. The basic premise: How can the GOP get behind Trump after House Speaker Paul Ryan said the billionaire made a 鈥渞acist comment鈥�?
There鈥檚 no doubt the loose coalition of elites that constitute the Republican establishment are restless this week. Sen. Mark Kirk (R) of Illinois 鈥� locked in tough reelection race 鈥� rescinded his Trump endorsement in response. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, former presidential aspirant, is backing away from his own pledge to support the party鈥檚 presumptive nominee. And conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt is fanning the embers of the #NeverTrump movement in an attempt to relight the flame.
On his program Wednesday Hewitt said the GOP needs to change its convention rules to block Trump in Cleveland and nominate somebody else.
鈥淩ight now the Republican Party is facing 鈥� the plane is headed towards the mountain after the last 72 hours,鈥� .听听
There are two reasons Trump is still a virtual lock to emerge from Cleveland as the Republican standard-bearer. The first is complexity. Dumping Trump would require preparation and coordination on a large scale. A majority of delegates would first have to vote to drastically amend the rules, knowing full well they were mounting a coup.
That wouldn鈥檛 happen unless pretty much the entire range of party leaders, from Ryan to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and primary rivals Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, approved. Then, newly unbound, the delegates would have to pick . . . somebody else. Who? Cruz won鈥檛 go along with this if it鈥檚 not him. Rubio might not either. It鈥檚 hard to have a revolution without a Fidel Castro in the wings.
That鈥檚 the problem with conspiracies. They鈥檙e great in the movies but real life is just not that organized.
The second reason Trump will continue to win is that denying him the prize at this point would be undemocratic. He flat out beat everybody else with the constituency that counts, GOP voters. He鈥檚 uniting the party 鈥� about 85 percent of Republicans now say they鈥檒l back him in November, according to polls.
The time to stop him was January. Now it鈥檚 too late.
鈥淣ow that he has not only clinched the nomination, but done so decisively, the idea that he can somehow be denied the nomination is foolish nonsense,鈥� Doug Mataconis at his Outside the Beltway blog, echoing this point.
But while the ragged band of remaining #NeverTrumpers can鈥檛 stop the billionaire from getting the nomination, they can slow or damage his general election campaign. That could well be their fallback defense.
It involves money. Trump needs it, and they have it. Or rather, they have access to lots of wealthy donors who have it.
After all, Trump鈥檚 campaign looks like it鈥檚 going to be cash-short. He first said he鈥檇 raise $1 billion, but now he鈥檚 talking about $500 million. Democrat Hillary Clinton will have a lot more than that.
You know who was great at raising money? Mitt Romney. You know who really, really thinks Trump is destroying the Republican Party? Bingo.
And tonight Romney is addressing a donor conference at his annual political summit in Park City, Utah.
鈥淲hat if Romney stands up there and asks them not to donate to Trump? What if he asks them to donate to [Libertarian] Gary Johnson? Mitt can still do damage to Trump without running,鈥� Allahpundit today at Hot Air.
Romney does not have to do this in public, of course. A few well-placed words behind the scenes would do the trick.
