Trump Rejects Move to Declare Him 'Presumptive Nominee'

A plan for the Republican National Committee to declare Donald Trump the "presumptive nominee" was shelved after Trump said thanks but no thanks. David Bossie, an RNC committeeman from Maryland who worked on Trump's 2016 campaign, had prepared a draft resolution stating that Trump is the RNC's "presumptive 2024 nominee" and the committee is now moving "into full general election mode welcoming supporters of all candidates as valued members of Team Trump 2024," the Dispatch reports. An insider told the AP Thursday night that the resolution had been withdrawn.

After Trump won the New Hampshire primary, Bossie said he would raise the resolution at the RNC's winter meeting in Las Vegas next week, the New York Times reports. "It's over and it is time for us to come together," he said. RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel signaled her support, saying Nikki Haley had run a "great campaign" but it was time for the party to unite around Trump, the "eventual nominee." In a post on Truth Social Thursday, Trump said he greatly appreciated the effort, but he feels that "for the sake of PARTY UNITY, that they should NOT go forward with this plan, but that I should do it the "Old Fashioned" way, and finish the process off AT THE BALLOT BOX."

Trump currently has 32 delegates to 17 for Haley—and he needs 1,215 to clinch the nomination. If the resolution had passed, it would have had no effect on the primary process, though many RNC members might have backed it as a "symbolic show of support" for Trump, the Times notes. Haley's campaign said choosing the nominee wasn't up to the RNC, reports the AP. "Who cares what the RNC says?" campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said. "We'll let millions of Republican voters across the country decide who should be our party's nominee, not a bunch of Washington insiders." (More Election 2024 stories.)