One of the main allies of Donald J. Trump inside the Republican National Committee has withdrawn a planned resolution to try to force the party’s official body to say the GOP presidential race is effectively over, even though only two states have voted and Nikki Haley has vowed to continue campaigning of against the dominant pioneer.
David Bossi, an RNC committeeman from Maryland and a longtime Trump confidant, had proposed a draft resolution declaring Mr. Trump the party’s “presumptive” nominee, according to two people with direct knowledge of his role in the effort .
But he dropped the plan to push the resolution after Mr. Trump posted on the Truth Social website that he did not want such a measure.
“While I greatly appreciate the Republican National Committee (RNC) wanting to make me their POTENTIAL NOMINEE, and while they have far more votes than they need to do so, I feel, for the sake of PARTY UNITY, that they should NOT proceed with this plan, but that I should do it the ‘old fashioned’ way and complete the process ON COVER,” he wrote.
Mr Bossie laid out his plan in an interview with NewsNation TV host Chris Cuomo after Mr Trump won the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.
“Donald Trump is the obvious candidate at this point,” Mr. Bossie said, adding that he would raise the issue at next week’s RNC meeting in Las Vegas. “It’s over and it’s time to unite.”
The resolution would have no practical effect on the ongoing primaries, which are run at the state level by local officials, some of whom are members of the RNC, but are required by state party rules to remain neutral. Resolutions like Mr. Bossie’s don’t force the RNC to do anything or change the process for how candidates gather delegates.
However, there may be a number of people who likely wanted to support the resolution, in a symbolic show of support for Mr Trump. And it could have given the committee cover to begin formally moving to support him in a general election, as Ms. Haley, the former South Carolina governor, faces pressure from several Republican officials to end her candidacy.
News website The Dispatch first reported the resolution. The document, independently obtained by The New York Times, states, in part, that “the Republican National Committee hereby designates President Trump as our 2024 presumptive nominee for the office of President of the United States and by is currently moving into full general election mode welcoming supporters of all candidates as valued members of Team Trump 2024.”
Asked how the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Rona McDaniel, planned to respond to Bossy’s resolution, an RNC spokesman, Keith Schipper, said Ms. McDaniel did not submit resolutions, but that RNC members did.
Mr. Bossie’s resolution “will be considered by the Resolutions Committee,” Mr. Schipper said earlier in the day, “and they will decide whether to send this resolution for a vote by the 168 members of the RNC at our annual meeting next week . “
Mr. Bossie, who did not respond to requests for comment, had overseen the debate committee for the RNC. A top Trump campaign adviser, Chris LaCivita, declined to comment on the resolution.
Trump’s campaign is desperate to end the primary as soon as possible to save resources for an expected multibillion-dollar general election showdown with President Biden. Mr Trump also faces mounting legal fees and the possibility of multiple trials before the election. Senior Trump advisers are eager to take control of the RNC and its fund even before July’s nominating convention in Milwaukee, when the nominee will be officially voted on.
In the GOP contest so far, Mr. Trump leads Ms. Haley in delegates, 32 to 17.
It is not the first time that people who support Mr. Trump have been accused of trying to rig the party system in his favor. In the past, officials working for the super PAC that supported Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who was once Mr. Trump’s primary opponent, accused the Trump campaign of “rigging” the delegate process in several states.
In response to the push to name Mr. Trump as the presumptive nominee, Olivia Perez-Cubas, a spokeswoman for Haley’s campaign, said in a statement: “Who cares what the RNC says? We’re going to let millions of Republican voters across the country decide who our party’s nominee should be, not a bunch of people in Washington.”
This week, Ms. McDaniel, the RNC chairwoman, put her own thumb on the scale for Mr. Trump after his 11-point victory over Ms. Haley in New Hampshire.
“I think there’s a message from voters that’s clear: We need to unite around our eventual nominee, which is going to be Donald Trump,” Ms. McDaniel told Fox News on Tuesday night.
Her comments angered Haley’s supporters, including Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, who described her comments as “nonsense.”
Ms McDaniel has come under intense pressure from a number of influential figures on the right, including former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who have portrayed her as out of touch with the Trump movement and criticized her electoral defeats during her tenure and depleted finances of the RNC.
Until New Hampshire, Ms. McDaniel presented herself as neutral in the nominating contest, although her close personal relationship with Mr. Trump had raised suspicions among some of the former president’s opponents. Mr. Trump’s top aides have been urging Ms. McDaniel, both publicly and privately, to end the Republican primary debates early, a move she has resisted.
Mr. Trump and his allies at all levels of the party are pushing hard to declare Mr. Trump the presumptive nominee and squelch his one remaining challenger, Ms. Haley.
On Wednesday night, Mr Trump threatened Republican donors, posting on his social media site that anyone contributing to Ms Haley “from now on” would be “permanently expelled” from his camp.
To that end, Mr. Bossie’s draft resolution stated that “it is imperative for the well-being of all Americans that President Trump defeat President Biden this November and that all efforts and resources of patriots nationwide be focused solely on in that and down-the-ballot Republican victories. “
