A Trump challenge: Uniting bitter Republicans
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (AFP) — US Republicans have taken to social media in droves to burn their voter registration cards, renounce their political affiliation, and pledge never to vote for their party’s presumptive nominee Donald Trump in November.
Trump is basking in the glory of an all-but-certain victory in the chaotic GOP nomination race, after rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich raised their white flags of surrender.
But Trump’s rise presents a moment of truth for Republicans: can they rally around one of the most contentious presidential nominees in modern history?
Astounding displays of antagonism are coming from conservatives who under more normal circumstances would likely be backing the Republican standardbearer.
Startling images landed on Twitter Tuesday and Wednesday in the hours after the braggadocious billionaire’s sweeping Indiana primary victory, including a shot of conservative writer Lachlan Markay and video of one Bryan Akner, both setting their voter registration cards alight.
One of the chief challenges on Trump’s hands as he shifts from the nominations battle to a likely general election brawl against Democrat Hillary Clinton is how to win over Republicans infuriated by his candidacy.
Some conservative critics like former candidate and Louisiana exgovernor Bobby Jindal, who once branded Trump “dangerous” and ignorant, are biting the bullet and shuffling into line behind Trump.
Mainstream Senator Susan Collins said she would support Trump, but he will “have to mend a lot of fences” and halt what she called gratuitous insults that have marked his campaign.
The country’s previous two Republican presidents, George W. Bush and his father George H.W. Bush, who undoubtedly bristled at Trump’s bullying attacks on candidate Jeb Bush, have signaled through their offices that they will stay on the sidelines during this cycle.
George W. Bush “does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign,” his personal aide Freddy Ford told the Texas Tribune.
Other Republicans are sounding like they intend to fight Trump every step of the way -- by voting for Clinton, if necessary.
“The GOP is going to nominate for president a guy who reads the National Enquirer and thinks it’s on the level,” tweeted Mark Salter, a former senior advisor to 2008 Republican nominee John McCain, after Trump peddled the tabloid’s conspiracy theory that linked Cruz’s father to president John F. Kennedy’s assassin.
“I’m with her,” Salter added, repeating a Clinton campaign slogan.
Washington Examiner’s managing editor, Philip Klein, tweeted that he had “officially de-registered as a Republican.”