Ally at RNC wants the party to support Trump's attempt to push Haley out

One of Donald J. Trump's key allies within the Republican National Committee is trying to force the party's official body to say that the Republican Party's electoral battle is effectively over, even though only two states have voted and Nikki Haley has pledged to campaign against the Republicans. the dominant leader.

David Bossie, an RNC committee member from Maryland and longtime Trump confidante, has proposed a draft resolution declaring Mr. Trump the party's “presumptive” nominee, according to two people with direct knowledge of his role in the effort.

Mr. Bossie previewed his plan in an interview with television host Chris Cuomo on NewsNation after Mr. Trump won the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.

“Donald Trump is the apparent nominee at this point,” Mr. Bossie said, adding that he would raise the issue at the RNC meeting in Las Vegas next week. “It's over and it's time to come together.”

The resolution has no practical effect on the primary elections taking place, which are organized at the state level by local officials, some of whom are members of the RNC but must remain neutral under state party rules. Resolutions like Mr. Bossie's do not force the RNC to do anything or change the process for how candidates collect delegates.

Still, there may be some people who want to support the resolution as a symbolic show of support for Mr. Trump. And it could give the committee cover to formally support him in a general election, now that Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, is under pressure from some Republican officials to end her candidacy.

The news website The Dispatch first reported on the resolution. The document, which was independently obtained by The New York Times, states in part that “the Republican National Committee hereby declares President Trump as our presumptive 2024 nominee for the office of President of the United States and, at this time, will enter into full general election mode where supporters of all candidates are welcomed as valued members of Team Trump 2024.”

Asked how Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna McDaniel planned to respond to the Bossie resolution, an RNC spokesman Keith Schipper said Ms. McDaniel had not advanced any resolutions but that members of the RNC did.

Mr. Bossie's resolution “will be adopted by the Resolution Committee,” Mr. Schipper said, “and they will decide whether this resolution will be put to a vote by the 168 RNC members at our annual meeting next week.”

Mr. Bossie, who did not respond to requests for comment, had overseen the RNC's debate committee. A top adviser to the Trump campaign, Chris LaCivita, declined to comment on the resolution.

The Trump campaign is desperate to end the primaries as quickly as possible to conserve resources for an expected billion-dollar-plus clash with President Biden. Mr. Trump also faces rising legal costs and the possibility of multiple lawsuits before the election. Senior Trump advisers are eager to take control of the RNC and its treasury even before the July nominating convention in Milwaukee, when the nominee will be officially voted on.

In the Republican contest so far, Mr. Trump leads Ms. Haley in delegates, 32 to 17.

It is not the first time that people who support Mr Trump have been accused of trying to manipulate the party system in his favor. In the past, officials working for the super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was once Trump's chief rival, accused the Trump campaign of “rigging” the delegate process in several states.

Responding to the push to declare Mr. Trump the presumptive nominee, Olivia Perez-Cubas, a spokeswoman for the Haley campaign, said in a statement: “Who cares what the RNC says? We're letting millions of Republican voters across the country decide who our party's nominee should be, not a bunch of Washington insiders.”

Mr. Bossie's draft resolution comes shortly after Ms. McDaniel, the RNC chairwoman, put her own thumb on the scale for Mr. Trump following his 11-point victory over Ms. Haley in New Hampshire.

“I think there is a message from voters that is clear: We have to unite around our ultimate nominee, and that will be Donald Trump,” Ms. McDaniel told Fox News on Tuesday night.

Her comments angered Haley's supporters, including New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu described her comments as 'nonsense'.

Ms. McDaniel has been under intense pressure from several influential figures on the right, including former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who have portrayed her as out of touch with the Trump movement and criticized election losses during her tenure and depleted RNC finances .

Until New Hampshire, Ms. McDaniel had presented herself as neutral in the nominating contest, though her close personal relationship with Mr. Trump had raised suspicions among some of the former president's rivals. Mr. Trump's top aides had urged Ms. McDaniel, both publicly and privately, to end Republican primary debates early, a move she had opposed.

Mr. Trump and his allies at all levels of the party are doing everything they can to declare Mr. Trump the inevitable nominee and eliminate his only remaining challenger, Ms. Haley.

On Wednesday evening, Mr Trump threatened Republican donors, to post on his social media website that anyone who contributes to Ms. Haley will be “permanently banned” from his camp “as of this moment.”

To that end, Mr. Bossie's draft resolution states that “it is imperative for the well-being of all Americans that President Trump defeats President Biden in November and that all efforts and resources of patriots across the country be focused solely on that goal and ensure Republican victories at the ballot box . ”