Free Republic

Barring a zombie apocalypse, alien invasion or Hillary being indicted for her crimes by the Obama-run DOJ (which is about as likely as the first two), Donald Trump is not going to be the next president. Even if Hillary’s horrible cough turns out to be a symptom of some fatal disease, Trump still won’t be elected because whoever her vice president turns out to be will still beat him.

A top Republican National Committee (RNC) official sought to soothe business leaders worried about Donald Trump's influence on the party, saying at a private meeting on Tuesday that its presumptive presidential nominee would not dictate the party's platform. Ben Key, the RNC platform committee"s executive director, offered the assurance during a meeting at the organization's headquarters on Capitol Hill, according to two sources in the room.... The source said several of those attending the meeting offered knowing smiles in response to the comment. "And then he added... that the platform would not include some of the more controversial positions that...

Donald Trump has announced plans to hold a victory news conference in just over an hour in Bismarck, North Dakota (it’s the capital), where Guardian politics reporter Ben Jacobs is laying in wait. DT Jr celebrates victory: — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 26, 2016 1237 ✔️

Donald J. Trump, turning his attention to the general election, has begun quietly reaching out to key elements of the Republican establishment as he seeks to unite the party behind his candidacy before his anticipated battle against Hillary Clinton. Mr. Trump, who is expected to run on a nonideological platform of his own design, is trying to reassure party officials that he understands there are certain norms even he needs to follow as the Republican nominee, and that he is capable of producing an organization and infrastructure that can sustain a costly general election campaign.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said he would back whoever wins the Republican nomination, even after sharply criticizing the tone and violence at Donald Trump's rallies.

On Wednesday morning, not even 24 hours after Donald Trump effectively clinched the Republican nomination, Paul Ryan convened his top advisers for a call. With Congress out of session, Ryan was bouncing between multiple states, raising the piles of money needed to keep House Republicans in the majority. But Donald Trump was on his mind. The speaker could not — at least at this point — support him. And he wanted to talk through how to proceed. Ryan never expected Trump to lock up the nomination so quickly. He didn't think Texas Sen. Ted Cruz would drop out of the...

“[I]n the case of Paul Ryan he made a big mistake today and he needs to understand this,” Gingrich said. “He is the Speaker of the House. He has an obligation to unify the party. He has an obligation to reach out. Obviously he and Donald Trump are going to have disagreements. Some of them will work out and some of them they won’t. That’s fine. Our constitution provides that speakers and presidents can fight, but I think he sends the wrong signal and a signal which I think endangers the House Republicans and endangers the Senate Republicans.”

Trump's promise to unify the Republican Party is in tatters, as an all-out civil war grips the GOP. Donald Trump on Tuesday night assumed the mantle of presumptive nominee and declared, “We want to bring unity to the Republican Party. We have to bring unity.” Three days later, the GOP is tearing itself apart. Friday brought another day of incredible division and revolt with Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham falling in line not behind Trump, but behind House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said a day earlier that he cannot yet support the brash real estate mogul as his party’s standard-bearer.

“ Sen. Jeff Sessions said Thursday night that House Speaker Paul Ryan made an error by saying he’s not ready to support Donald Trump yet, and said Ryan and other leaders need to realize the Republican Party is shifting under their feet. “I think this was a big mistake, I really do,” the Alabama Republican said on Fox News. “And I’m very surprised, frankly, since he’d indicated he’d support whoever the nominee was.” “The speaker of the House is a big leader, an important figure in the Republican Party,” he added. “He calls on House members every day to stand...

or this reason among others, I do not understand the impulse of the NeverTrump people to anathametize and shun those Republicans who will not vow to oppose Mr. Trump and commit to defeating him. They have been warned that if they don’t do these things they will not be allowed to help rebuild the party after Mr. Trump destroys it. Conservatives love to throw conservatives out of conservatism; it’s like an ancestral tic. But great political movements should not be run like private clubs. And have the anathemitizers noticed they aren’t in charge anymore? That in the great antiestablishment disruption...

AUSTIN — With Donald Trump now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President George W. Bush “does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential race,” a spokesman said Wednesday. ... And George W. Bush — whose decision was first reported by The Associated Press – isn’t the only one in his family who will be sitting out the election. A spokesman for George H.W. Bush told The Texas Tribune that the former president is “retired from politics.” “He came out of retirement to do a few things for Jeb,” Bush 41 spokesman Jim McGrath told the media...

In May of 1988 Gov. Michael Dukakis had a 10-point lead over his Republican rival, the same margin that Hillary Clinton has today. He lost. And she could, too. Don't comfort yourself too much by looking at the horse race polls. Those are about Donald Trump's weakness, not Clinton's strength. A fresh Washington Post poll shows that only 37 percent of American voters trust her, and the number is dropping -- even before her well-fed opponents have begun to pound the airwaves with slimy attack ads on her. And let's face it: It is not beyond the imagination to think...

AND THEN THERE WAS THE ONE May 4, 2016 A guy just won the Republican nomination for president by spending no money, hiring no pollsters, running virtually no TV ads, and just saying what he truly believed no matter how many times people told him he couldn't say that. I always hoped I'd see this once before I died. It's like to going to Mecca, for Americans. Pay attention, because it's the last time we're going to see it in our lifetimes. For those of you not yet on the Trump Train, I know you don't want to vote for...

As predicted in this space yesterday, Donald Trump rolled to a big win in Indiana and Ted Cruz dropped out of the GOP presidential race. Trump is now on track to hit the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the nomination on the first ballot in Cleveland in July. The focus now shifts to how Republicans will deal with the fact that Trump — who is neither a fiscal nor a social conservative — is their standard bearer. Some began on Tuesday to line up behind the Manhattan-based brand manager. The RNC officially acknowledged Trump as the victor. But there...

Now that Donald Trump won Indiana and has pretty much clinched the Republican nomination, the left’s favorite fake Native American senator is having a total meltdown.

I remember grassroots conservatives celebrating when he was elected two years ago because it meant adding another Republican to the Senate who takes his principles seriously. Now here’s Sasse last night reiterating that he takes his principles seriously enough not to vote for a big-government liberal just because he’s the party’s nominee and he’ll be excoriated for it. Oh well. The principled choice is rarely the popular one.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, lives along so many fault lines of American politics that he is especially sensitive to Trump tremors, which he fears could become an earthquake by November. “I’m concerned,” he said. “Beating Donald Trump won’t be as easy as it might look.” Casey is a pro-life, pro-gun Roman Catholic in a state that Democratic consultant James Carville once described as “Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Alabama in between.” He is also an old-school Democrat and a new-school one: He's pro-union and wary of global trade; he defends Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare and same-sex...

Trump victory speech 5/3/16

John Kasich is staying in the Republican presidential race, his campaign said Tuesday. After finishing a distant third in Tuesday's Indiana primary, the Kasich campaign's chief strategist, John Weaver, sent out a memo announcing the Ohio governor will remain in the race until Trump secures the GOP nomination. "Tonight's results are not going to alter Gov. Kasich's campaign plans," Weaver wrote in the memo. "Our strategy has been and continues to be one that involves winning the nomination at an open convention."