WASHINGTON – The Republican Party doesn’t have to be unified for Donald Trump to become president, the GOP’s presumptive nominee said Sunday.
“Does it have to be unified? I’m very different than everybody else, perhaps, that’s ever run for office. I actually don’t think so,” Trump told “This Week” after several high-profile Republicans refused to back his candidacy. “I think it would be better if it were unified. There would be something good about it. But I don’t think it actually has to be unified in the traditional sense.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan said he’s not ready to support Trump, even after the billionaire is the only GOP candidate left standing. Former presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and former nominee Mitt Romney will all sit out GOP convention in July.
Trump said it’s up to others to come around to his views because he has the will of the people on his side. Trump is set to shatter George W. Bush’s 2000 record of 10.8 million GOP primary votes.
“I have to say true to my principles,” Trump said.
Trump’s convention manager Paul Manafort added on Fox News Sunday. “It’s his agenda that has just been cemented as what the American people or at least Republicans and independents who voted for him want.”
Manafort added it’s “unrealistic” for party bosses to get on board with Trump immediately, but there is “plenty of time to put the party together.”
On “Meet the Press,” Trump blasted 2012 nominee Romney for turning his back on Trump: “I believe I won him, or helped him win, five states that he was going to lose in the primaries….He was ungrateful.”
Critics have condemned Trump for his controversial statements on women, Muslims, Mexican immigrants.
Showing no sign of letting up, Trump went on an epic tirade while campaigning in Washington saying nobody in the history of politics “was worse to women or abused women more than Bill Clinton.” He said men have it tough: “The women get it better than we do, folks.”
Since all-but winning the GOP nomination, Trump has shifted to more Democratic Party positions by now being open to raising the minimum and wanting to raise taxes on the wealthy.
Trump chalked up his past positions—such as his tax cut plan that including tax breaks for the rich — as an opening salvos to negotiate with Congress.
“Under my proposal, it’s the biggest tax cut by far, of any candidate by far. But I’m not under the illusion that that’s going to pass.”
Some previous critics have come on board to Trump, including former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Sen. Bob Dole. Trump will meet with Ryan on Thursday to try to iron out differences.