DES MOINES, Iowa — Donald Trump and some mainstream Republicans are engaged in a long-distance flirtation. Both sides are coming to the realization that they’ll need each other if the billionaire businessman becomes the party’s presidential nominee.
The Republican establishment is no fonder of Trump than when he first roiled the campaign last summer with his controversial comments about immigrants and women. But with voting beginning in just over a week, his durability atop preference polls has pushed some donors, strategists and party elders to grudgingly accept the prospect of his winning the nomination.
“We’d better stop hoping for something else and accept the possibility that he’s our nominee and be prepared to rally around him if that’s the case,” said Fred Malek, a top Republican presidential fundraiser.
Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican nominee who represented Kansas in the House and Senate for decades, said of Trump: “He’s got this personality where I do believe he could work with Congress.”
Trump, too, has started to suggest that he’d look for ways to work with Republican leaders if he wins.
“I’m a dealmaker who will get things done,” he said Thursday in Las Vegas. “There’s a point at which – let’s get to be a little establishment. We got to get things done, folks, OK?”
http://www.pressherald.com/2016/01/22/gop-facing-trump-durability/
The Republican establishment is no fonder of Trump than when he first roiled the campaign last summer with his controversial comments about immigrants and women. But with voting beginning in just over a week, his durability atop preference polls has pushed some donors, strategists and party elders to grudgingly accept the prospect of his winning the nomination.
“We’d better stop hoping for something else and accept the possibility that he’s our nominee and be prepared to rally around him if that’s the case,” said Fred Malek, a top Republican presidential fundraiser.
Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican nominee who represented Kansas in the House and Senate for decades, said of Trump: “He’s got this personality where I do believe he could work with Congress.”
Trump, too, has started to suggest that he’d look for ways to work with Republican leaders if he wins.
“I’m a dealmaker who will get things done,” he said Thursday in Las Vegas. “There’s a point at which – let’s get to be a little establishment. We got to get things done, folks, OK?”
http://www.pressherald.com/2016/01/22/gop-facing-trump-durability/
