Former President Donald Trump made a very disappointing decision when he said Wednesday he won’t sign a pledge to support the Republican nominee if he loses the GOP
presidential primary. The so-called loyalty pledge is a requirement for appearing in the first Republican Primary debate later this month.
“Why would I sign it?” Trump said in an interview on the conservative cable network Newsmax. “I can name three or four people that I wouldn’t support for president. So right there, there’s a problem.”
In a very un-Trump-like comment the former President declined to name the candidates he wouldn’t support, saying “there’s no reason to insult them.”
Reason-free insults are kind of a Trump trademark, so declining to name those Republican primary opponents he wouldn’t support strikes us as a cop-out. As supporters who voted twice for Mr. Trump, we’d like to know which candidates he thinks stray so far from the Make America Great Again agenda that they would be unworthy of support if they won the nomination.
We could quickly name three or four alleged Republicans we wouldn’t support as well, (Chris Christie, Nikki Haley and Asa Hutchinson for starters) but we are not running to represent the Republican Party on the ballot.
And that’s what’s so troubling and disappointing about President Trump’s refusal to sign the GOP loyalty pledge – the whole point of a political party is to generate votes and elect a slate of candidates. A “party” devoted to just one candidate isn’t a “party” it’s a cult of personality.
And making the 2024 election all about Donald Trump, as opposed to contrasting his successful policies with Joe Biden’s abject failures, plays right into the hands of Democrats and Uniparty #NeverTrumpers who have denigrated the MAGA Movement as just that – a Trump cult of personality.
No doubt Mr. Trump will continue to run his campaign according to his own judgement as to what is best for him, but we hope he will find a way to gracefully reconsider this disappointing decision and participate in the entire series of Republican Primary debates.
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Republican primary debates