Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer speculated that if the current GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump does not ultimately win the nomination, he will not run as a third-party candidate in the upcoming general election.
According to Krauthammer, Trump’s ego and fear of being called a “loser” will not allow him to violate a pledge he had made as a Republican candidate to not run as a third-party candidate.
“[L]ook, what he is saying is the pledge isn’t worth the paper it is written on because I will decide if the terms have been observed. It’s not going to be an outside committee, it’s going to be me and he’ll decide. Look, if he starts slipping, he’ll say this had to do with unfairness or whatever, ganging up and then he will have the option of leaving. I suspect, though, that his ego will not — that would restrain him from running as a third party, assuming he doesn’t win the nomination because it’s going to be a lot harder than he thinks. And there will be a bar, sort of an invisible bar, and I think that’s going to be the Ross Perot number of 19 percent. I don’t think he would come anywhere near that in a general election. And that will be his mark on history and I don’t think he likes to be seen as a loser. The Republican nomination is his shot and I think that’s what he wants to go for.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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