It's not an ideal situation, but Trump is going to have to make a deal with the GOPe - even if he's over 1237.
The closer this gets to a nuclear confrontation, it has all the makings of a classic negotiation: If Trump gets ripped off & runs 3rd party, he won't be elected. But if Trump runs 3rd party, the GOPe is eviscerated.
It can all be settled if Trump takes on a GOPe lackey, and the GOPe add some conditions with which they think they can control Trump. Neither side gets **all** that they want in a perfect world, but each gets a piece of what they really want.
That is my thinking. I think you are dead on. Trump has no chance in a third party unless he buys off libertarians ( easily bought with their goof ball as VP johnson) ) but Trump has renounced that. The key to reclaim this country and OUR party is to crush the oligarchy. They are so rancid and sickening. If we don’t we will never vote for another republican for even city counsel. They suck.
” At least Rubio was born in the US.”***
The most important aspect of the NBC quality is being reared by citizen parents and absorbing the national character, mores, and values. Neither Cruz nor Rubio have this upbringing. Cruz’s father was an anti-Batista Cuban, as was Fidel Castro. Was he pro Castro while rearing Ted? We don’t know either way for certain. (Don’t tell me you do cuz you don’t for certain.)
There is a wisdom in the Founder’s NBC requirement. We ignore that wisdom to our peril. No single individual is worth turning our backs on the Constitution for. Even one who self-touts himself as a Constitutional Conservative. (An oxymoron, if ever there was one, in Cruz’s case.)
*** Rubio is spot on with the decision in USSC Wong Kim ARC. “Born in the US to Legal Resident Aliens.” Rubio is a born citizen by virtue of the 14th Amendment, but most definitely not what the Founders envisioned as a desirable Presidential candidate or would consider a NBC. He, like Cruz, is EXACTLY who the Founders wished to exclude from the Presidency. Don’t try to tell me you’re smarter than the collective Founders. You aren’t, and neither am I.