Trump has blown off questions in the past about a third party run, saying that people want him to, but that he’s running as a Republican. However he adds a caveat to that now, saying it may depend on whether or not he’s treated fairly by Republicans:
POLITICO – Even if he isn’t the Republican nominee for 2016, don’t count on Donald Trump to go quietly. If the Republican National Committee does not treat him fairly during the primary season, he says, the chances he will run as a third-party candidate will “absolutely” increase.
“The RNC has not been supportive. They were always supportive when I was a contributor. I was their fair-haired boy,” he told The Hill in an interview published Thursday morning. “The RNC has been, I think, very foolish.”
Trump has led several recent national polls among Republican voters, though a recent Quinnipiac University survey this week showed him with severely negative approval ratings in the swing states of Colorado, Iowa and Virginia.
The billionaire business mogul said that “so many want me to” run as a third-party candidate if he does not win the GOP nomination.
“I’ll have to see how I’m being treated by the Republicans,” he said, adding that if “they’re not fair, that would be a factor” in deciding whether he would make a third-party run.
He’s not an idiot. He knows that would almost certainly guarantee a Hillary win. I hope he’s just bluffing but he does have the resources to do it and I would expect the RNC understands this.