Republican Party Loyalty Pledge

Weird.

At Politico, via Memeorandum, "GOP circulates loyalty pledge to box Trump in."

At at the New York Times, "Republican Party Asks Candidates To Sign Loyalty Pledge":

Responding to growing pressure from party donors and officials to dissuade Donald J. Trump from mounting an independent campaign for president, the Republican National Committee on Wednesday asked each of the party’s presidential candidates to sign a statement vowing not to run as a third-party candidate.

With little warning, committee officials called and emailed campaign representatives requesting that they put in writing what every candidate, except for Mr. Trump, has already pledged to do.

“I ______ affirm that if I do not win the 2016 Republican nomination for president of the United States I will endorse the 2016 Republican presidential nominee regardless of who it is,” the document, on R.N.C. letterhead, states. “I further pledge that I will not seek to run as an independent or write-in candidate nor will I seek or accept the nomination for president of any other party.”

The document, first disclosed by Politico, was emailed to the campaigns under the subject line “pledge” and includes a space for the candidates to sign and for the R.N.C.’s chairman, Reince Priebus, to witness...

And I agree with this, at Hot Air:

If I were Trump, I’d feel obliged now to refuse on principle, to show my populist fans that no one tells me what to do. I don’t know why the RNC would try to call his bluff this way unless this whole thing has actually been coordinated with his campaign, i.e. unless today’s news of the loyalty pledge is just priming the pump for the bigger news that Trump’s in the GOP race to stay. In that case, though, why would Trump need any help from the RNC to build anticipation? He’s a media master. He could have made a huge announcement splash without them...

Pretty fascinating.

And yes, Trump should tell the RNC to just fuck off.

More.