Ex-adviser: Trump will sign loyalty pledge

A former top adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign says he expects Trump will sign a pledge not to run as an independent should he fail to secure the Republican presidential nomination.

{mosads}Roger Stone, a former top adviser to Trump’s campaign, said on C-SPAN on Thursday morning that Trump no longer has a reason to hold out over the threat to run as a third-party candidate.

“The truth is, Trump got what he wants, he’s given up nothing and he’s a strong front-runner for the Republican nomination,” Stone said. “I expect that he will sign the pledge today.”

The Republican National Committee on Wednesday sent a loyalty pledge to all of the GOP candidates that says they will support the party’s eventual nominee and won’t run a third-party campaign if their bid for the nomination falls short.

“I [candidate’s name] affirm that if I do not win the 2016 Republican nomination for president of the United States I will endorse the 2016 Republican presidential nominee regardless of who it is,” the pledge says. “I further pledge that I will not seek to run as an independent or write-in candidate nor will I seek or accept the nomination for president of any other party.”

The pledge was almost exclusively aimed at Trump, a wealthy businessman with the potential to self-fund an Independent bid, who has repeatedly refused to take a third-party run off the table.

RNC chairman Reince Priebus is in New York City on Thursday to meet with Trump, and the two will hold a press conference later in the day where Trump is expected to formally announce that he’ll only run for president as a Republican.

Several other candidates have already signed the pledge.

A representiatve for Ben Carson’s campaign told The Hill the pledge has been signed and returned. 

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed the document live on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom” Thursday morning, and Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) said moments later on the same program that he would also sign it.

Paul sought to take credit for moving Trump in the same direction.

“I challenged him in the debate to do it, so I’m hoping my challenge to Donald Trump will make him rethink using and abusing the Republican Party, and I think he is going to change his mind, and if so, I was glad to be part of getting him to change his mind,” Paul said.

Trump has been keeping the door open to running as an Independent, saying he would like to run as a Republican but wants to make sure that other Republicans treat him fairly during the nominating process.

Stone said Thursday that the national party has kept up its end of the bargain, so there was no longer a reason for Trump to threaten a third-party run.

“The fact he was in the Fox debate, will be in the CNN debate … the fact that the national party chairman is coming to see him today, I think all of those things indicate that Trump has gotten what he wanted, which is a level playing field within the Republican Party,” Stone said.

Trump is dominating in the polls and fiercely attacking his rivals, Jeb Bush in particular. 

If Trump were to win the nomination, it would be difficult for some currently in the race to support his candidacy, as the pledge states.

But Bush on Thursday said he would.

“Yeah, I would — of course,” Bush said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We need to be unified. We need to win.”