If the rules say a candidate must have a given number of delegates

[malaise]

who is Trump to violate the party rules. We haven't seen ugly yet - buckle up those seat belts.
Apparently Trump is more than threatening the RNC. Oh he's also pro-life tonight.

Oh by the way I'm fuggin' lovin' it

[jberryhill]

1. Rules?

[malaise]

2. Bwaaaaaaaaaaaah

and that's the truth

I have this feeling that someone will get hurt real bad before this ReTHUG madness ends.

[Gothmog]

3. RNC rules are very very different from DNC

The allocations of delegates in primary states under DNC rules cannot be varied and the candidate has approval rights over their delegates. The RNC rules are very different that delegates awards have to be confirmed by subsequent county and state conventions. This is how Ron Paul ended up with all of the Iowa delegates and most of the Louisiana delegates in 2012.

[gratuitous]

4. Trump is already on record (yeah, that was then; this is now)

As for anything Trump ever says, it's probably worthless as soon as he stops talking, but Trump has said that if he gets to the convention with a plurality of delegates and he doesn't get the nomination, he's ordered his followers to riot.

We'll see what happens. It may not be pretty. It may not even be funny.

[pampango]

5. And the RNC is fighting back by threatening to change the convention's exiting rule that

only candidates who won "a majority of delegates in eight states to be eligible for the party’s nomination" which would mean that, at this point, only Trump could be nominated. Perhaps Cruz will eventually qualify too but the GOP establishment does not want to be limited to choosing Trump or between just Trump and Cruz.

Nothing like changing the rules when you are half way through the primary process.

GOP panelists eager to scrap rule that helps Trump

Four early appointees to the rules committee say the Republican convention rule is an artificial one.

If the committee scraps the requirement entirely, it could open the door to multiple candidates, possibly even some who never entered the primaries, competing for the party’s nomination at a brokered convention. And even a lower threshold would make it easier for Trump’s rivals to challenge him.

If Trump doesn’t effectively clinch the Republican nomination by the June 7 end of the primary season, the rules committee is destined to be the epicenter of political wrangling and horse-trading leading up to what would be the first contested convention since 1976.

... the panel is imbued with virtually unchecked power to draft rules that tip the nomination away from Trump — or into his grasp

“Any proposed change will be viewed as to which candidates would be helped and which candidates would be hurt. It’s a classic example of changing the rules in the middle of the game,” said Morton Blackwell, a veteran Republican national committeeman from Virginia who is considering seeking appointment to the rules panel this year. “It would be widely and correctly viewed as that outrageous power grab.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/republican-convention-rules-trump-cruz-221355

This will be fun to watch.