Donald Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination with minimal support from the party’s power structure. He beat the son and brother of the last two Republican presidents, several of the GOP’s most promising up-and-coming national politicians and many of its most experienced political operatives.
At times, Trump even talks about the party he is on the verge of leading as if it is an outside entity, referring to “the Republicans.” He responded to rumors of a conservative independent candidacy, for example, by tweeting “if the GOP can’t control their own, then they are not a party.” Trump was the party’s presumptive nominee when he sent that.
Can Trump win the general election the same way he won the nomination — largely without the party? Many Republicans say no.
Trump isn’t planning on self-funding in the fall to the same extent he did his primary campaign. There remain questions as to whether he is sufficiently wealthy to do so. Even if he has the net worth, it’s also possible he’s not liquid enough. He has already entered into a fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee.
“The RNC really wanted to do it, and I want to show good spirit,” Trump said at the time. “‘Cause I was very happy to continue to go along the way I was.” But the Washington Examiner‘s David M. Drucker reported that top Trump aide Paul Manafort told a group of Senate Republican chiefs of staff that the campaign was low on funds.
The RNC is also going to assume responsibility for much of Trump’s ground game. Party leaders are adamant that this was always going to be the plan no matter who the nominee was and bristle at suggestions that this somehow makes them behind, arguing that the RNC has long been gearing up for this fight.
Either way, however, this requires a level of cooperation between Trump and official party organs that was not always in evidence during the primaries. Trump ran against GOP donors and special interests throughout the primary. Now he’s going to rely on them at least somewhat as he works with the RNC and hits the fundraising circuit himself.
“Everybody thinks he’s worth 10 billion bucks,” Democratic strategist Joe Trippi told the Washington Examiner. “That alone will make some donors think they don’t need to give him money.”
Now that Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee, she can hone her attacks against Trump and expect to see her arguments repeated by her party’s elected officials and activists throughout the country. No such message coordination appears to exist between Trump and most Republican elected officials.
When Clinton began denouncing Trump as temperamentally unfit for the presidency in her foreign policy speech, many Republicans hit her, but few defended him. When Trump was denounced for his comments on the federal judge handling the class-action suit against his defunct online university, GOP officials — including some strong endorsers — echoed the criticism instead of standing up for the standard-bearer.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has endorsed Trump for president, but nevertheless expressed concern about him damaging the GOP brand long-term.
Neither has Trump felt any special obligation to allay Republican elected officials’ concerns about the controversies that engulf him. He told Fox News’ Sean Hannity he was “disappointed” in their reaction and added “they have to get over it,” they “shouldn’t be so angry for so long.”
Polls show Trump has made progress in winning over rank-and-file Republican voters. But there’s still more work to be done to create what House Speaker Paul Ryan calls “real party unity.”
