‘In a pickle’: Trump’s loyalty pledge criticism poses GOP problems beyond the debate

Former President Donald Trump is once again testing the limits of his influence over the GOP, this time by refusing to sign a pledge to support the party’s eventual presidential nominee — a prerequisite for participating in the Republican National Committee’s first primary debate next week.

Trump hasn’t yet committed to appearing at the debate in Milwaukee on Aug. 23. He is expected to make a final decision sometime this week, but he’s already made clear that he won’t adhere to the RNC’s loyalty pledge requirement.

“Why would I sign it?” Trump said on the conservative network Newsmax. “I can name three or four people that I wouldn’t support for president. So right there, there’s a problem.”

Trump’s criticism of the pledge could put the RNC in the difficult position of choosing whether to keep the former president off of the debate stage or compromise on its own rules at a time when it’s trying to project neutrality in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

It’s also a circumstance that could hint at future trouble in Florida, where the state GOP has implemented a similar rule requiring candidates to pledge their support to the party’s eventual nominee as a prerequisite for appearing on the primary ballot next March.

“I affirm that if I do not win the 2024 Republican nomination for President of the United States, I will endorse the 2024 Republican presidential nominee regardless of who it is,” the Florida GOP’s oath reads. “I further pledge that I will not seek to run as an independent, non-party affiliated, or write-in candidate nor will I seek or accept the nomination for president of any other party.”

The candidates have until Nov. 22 to sign that pledge, and it’s unclear whether Trump will comply. Spokespeople for his campaign did not respond to the Miami Herald’s requests for comment, nor did multiple Republican Party of Florida officials.

Still, if Trump ultimately declines to sign the oath and is kept off the Florida ballot, there could be significant repercussions: Florida’s winner-take-all primary on March 19 will award the winner nearly 10% of the total delegates needed to secure the GOP’s 2024 nomination.

‘RNC is in a pickle’

For now, at least, it’s the first Republican presidential debate that’s drawing the most attention.

Bryan Lanza, an adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign who remains close with the former president’s team, said that tension over the loyalty pledge underscored an ongoing power struggle between party officials and the conservative grassroot voters who largely remain supportive of Trump.

“It’s about the party trying to assert its power over the grassroots movement, but you can’t do that when the frontrunner is the grassroots movement,” Lanza said. “I think the president very much wants to show that he has the power.”

“The RNC is in a pickle,” he added.

Doug Heye, a Republican strategist and former RNC communications director, said that Trump wants to prove that he still holds the reins of the party, even as he faces his first competitive primary in years.

“Why would anyone expect Donald Trump to back anyone other than Donald Trump?” Heye said.

To be sure, such pledges are practically unenforceable.

And Trump has shown a willingness to buck loyalty pledges before. He refused to agree to a similar RNC pledge during his first presidential run eight years ago. Trump eventually signed the pledge but then reversed course, saying that he would simply ignore it if he didn’t win the nomination.

So far, four candidates — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — have signed the 2024 loyalty pledge. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who says that he has qualified for the first debate, has indicated that he would sign it, as well. Another candidate, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, told Fox News on Tuesday that he will sign it once he receives it from the RNC.

The Florida pledge, however, is new. The party declined to put a similar requirement in place during the 2016 election cycle, despite having two Floridians — former Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio — seeking the presidency.

It’s hard to know what the field will look like come March. But if Trump fails to make the primary ballot in the Sunshine State, it could turn the state into a delegate windfall for DeSantis, who’s widely seen as the former president’s leading challenger.

Despite Trump’s refusal to promise to support the eventual nominee, he has already signed a similar pledge when he filed for the primary ballot in South Carolina earlier this month. That filing includes a vow to “generally” support “the nominees of the Republican Party” in the 2024 general election.

Ballots different than debates

One person familiar with Trump’s thinking on the race noted that he’s more likely to sign state-level pledges if they’re necessary to get on the ballot than the RNC’s pledge, which he views as an unnecessary challenge to his standing among Republican voters.

Multiple Republicans noted that were the committee to block Trump from the debate, it would likely face pressure from Fox News to allow him to participate, given the effect that his appearance would have on television ratings. Trump recently attended a private dinner with Fox News executives, who lobbied him to appear in the debate.

A spokesperson for the RNC did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment on Trump’s stance on the loyalty pledge. But in an interview on CNN last month, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said that the committee would stick to the rules, regardless of what Trump decides to do.

“If you’re going to stand on the Republican National Committee debate stage you should be able to support the nominee and beat Biden,” she said. “Everybody has to sign the Beat Biden pledge, everybody. It’s across the board, the rules aren’t changing, we’ve been very vocal with them.”

Asked what the RNC would do if Trump decides to skip the debate, McDaniel responded bluntly: “Then he skips it. That’s his choice.”