Trump promises to wage long campaign
GOP candidate would run as independent but doesn’t want to divide Republican vote
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump vowed Thursday to wage a hard-charging and lengthy presidential campaign, including filing his financial disclosures with the Federal Election Commission as early as next week, as unease swirled through the Republican Party about his incendiary rhetoric on immigration.
In a wide-ranging, 30-minute interview with the Washington Post, the billionaire real estate mogul and reality-television star also said he has serious concerns about other GOP candidates and refused to commit to supporting the eventual nominee in the general election.
“So many people want me to run as an independent, so many people,” Trump said. “I have been asked by — you have no idea, everybody wants me to do it.”
Tactical retreat
Pressed about whether he would back the Republican ticket if he fails to win the nomination, Trump left the door open for a third-party bid of his own.
“I would have to see who the nominee is,” he said.
For now, Trump said he believes the “best chance of defeating the Democrats” is for him to “win as a Republican because I don’t want to be splitting up votes.”
The specter of an independent run by Trump has unnerved GOP power brokers, many of whom worry such a campaign could draw substantial support from the party’s base, similar to how Ross Perot’s maverick 1992 presidential campaign won an enthusiastic following among frustrated conservatives.
Trump’s comments came in a call to the Post to dispute some details reported Wednesday night about a private phone call with Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Priebus weighs in Trump said the Wednesday call with Priebus lasted between 10 and 15 minutes and was “congratulatory” with regard to Trump’s ascent in the polls. He said that, near the end of their discussion, Priebus asked him to speak in a more measured way about immigration.
“He started off saying, ‘Wow, you really hit a nerve,’ ” Trump said. “He said, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this since I’ve been in politics.’ ”
Trump said: “It wasn’t a lecturing-type call. He’s going to lecture me? Give me a break.”
Trump shrugged off the alarm in the GOP about his candidacy.
“They don’t know me yet,” Trump said of Republican elders. “When they know me, they will love me. That’s what happens, and I think I’m going to win. I’m getting the biggest crowds by far. I’m going to Arizona (on Saturday). I hear the place is going wild.”
One Arizona Republican who is not enthused is Sen. Jeff Flake, who Thursday called on the local Republican Party to withdraw its sponsorship of Saturday’s event, which will feature Trump and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
In an interview Thursday, Flake said Trump and Arpaio’s inflammatory words about immigrants and about President Barack Obama’s place of birth are not reflective of the Republican Party’s values. The event at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix is hosted by the Republican Party of Maricopa County.
“As an elected official and as a Republican, I’m not excited about this, to say the least,” Flake said. “I don’t think that his views are reflective of the party, particularly in Arizona, a border state.”
Other Republicans disagreed. “I believe that Mr. Trump is kind of telling it like it really, truly is,” former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer told CNN on Wednesday.
She said many residents are anxious about “the drug cartels, the smugglers, the drug houses” that “come across our border.”