How Trump got the Republican Party to pledge itself to him

I don’t know about you but I was stunned when I heard Donald Trump say, “I have signed the pledge.”

The guy who criticizes the Iran deal, our deals with Mexico and China, signs a deal with the Republican Party to support whoever wins the party’s primary.

Trump effectively changed his mind Thursday and promised not to make a third-party run for the White House, even if he loses the Republican nomination.

He clearly didn’t want to do it, so why did he? There appears to be several reasons. First, Reince Priebus, head of the Republican Party, came to his headquarters to get his signature. A sign of respect. And second, several state party organizations had threatened to keep him off the ballot if he didn’t sign. Which could have cost him the votes he needs to turn his high poll numbers into actual delegates.

And the most important point: it’s looking more and more like he could actually win the nomination, even though he says stuff the party hates.

He does have conservative credentials, including a gun, as he told talk host Hugh Hewitt. But Trump wouldn’t say much more about it, including what kind of gun he owns.

“I’d rather not say. I have a license to carry, concealed,” he said.

But he has also said things that would have sunk any other Republican. He’s embraced Democratic programs like social security and universal medical coverage. He has refused to cut off Planned Parenthood. And he wants to tax the rich.

But now with the pledge &#8212 if he wins, the other 16 candidates are now pledged to campaign for him no matter what he’s said.

That’s why he signed. Because he looked around and realized, “I’m not pledging myself to the Republican Party, the Republican Party is pledging itself to me!”

“I have taken deals that should have been bad and I’ve made them great,” Trump has previously said.

And those are the words of a man who may have just sold the Republican Party the most expensive piece of real estate it has ever purchased.