A Republican National Committee draft resolution that would have formally declared Donald Trump the Republican Party’s 2024 presumptive nominee was withdrawn Thursday amid pushback from the former president.
David Bossie, the RNC committeeman from Maryland who recently endorsed Trump and introduced the resolution, withdrew it, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The Trump campaign had initially approved going forward with the resolution and the former president himself was also on board until a backlash began, a source familiar told CNN.
Trump said on his social media platform Thursday that the RNC should not move forward with the resolution, saying he appreciated the effort but was opposing it “for the sake of Party unity” and wanted to “finish the process off AT THE BALLOT BOX.”
His statement came amid concerns from Trump allies that the resolution could anger Republicans because of the perception that Trump was trying to stack the deck against former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a source close to the former president said.
While the former president would have still needed to reach the delegate requirements necessary to win the nomination, if the resolution had been approved and the RNC had shifted to a general election mode, he would have access to the RNC’s data operation, benefit from fundraising with the RNC, and have the support of all of the committee’s ground operations. It would also have meant the committee would have been supporting Trump and effectively opposing Haley – an unprecedented break from the party’s past approach to the nominating process.
Read more about the RNC resolution here.
