Trump signs Republican pledge
Billionaire promises not to run as a third-party candidate
WASHINGTON — Presidential candidate Donald Trump ruled out the prospect of a third-party White House bid Thursday and vowed to support the Republican Party’s nominee — whoever it may be.
The billionaire businessman announced his decision at Trump Tower, the gold-hued skyscraper in Manhattan where he launched his surging and front-running campaign for president.
“I have signed the pledge,” Trump said, adding he intends to win the nomination himself and face whoever the Democrats nominate.
“So, I will be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican Party and the conservative principles for which it stands, and we will go out and we will fight hard and we will win,” he said.
Trump’s decision comes weeks after he roiled the race for the republican nomination when, in response to the first question at the opening debate of the 2016 campaign, he refused to promise to back the party’s nominee if he fell short.
He was intensely lobbied by Republican National Committee leaders, who have struggled to rein in the unpredictable former reality television star. Trump announced his decision shortly after meeting privately with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who angrily challenged Trump at the debate, took credit for what he termed Trump’s “capitulation.”
“I spent the last few weeks making sure people knew it was not acceptable to potentially throw the next election to Hillary,” Paul wrote on Twitter, referring to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
The decision puts an end, for now, to the nervousness felt inside the Republican Party about the prospect of Trump keeping his options open. At the debate, he said that gave him “a lot of leverage.”
The pledge is not legally binding. Trump could always change his mind, particularly if Republican establishment leaders take aggressive steps to thwart his candidacy in the coming months.
“I see no circumstances under which I would tear up that pledge,” Trump said Thursday.
If not for Trump, the need for such a loyalty oath probably would not exist. There were no doubts about the intentions of the Republicans’ other major presidential contenders headed into the debate, and they quickly lined up Thursday to sign.
A third-party bid by Trump could harm the Republican Party’s efforts to take back the White House after eight years of Democratic President Barack Obama. Trump leads the Republican field in early polls.