Off the wire
• 2022 Olympics effect emerging in China  • Tokyo shares end higher on BOJ policy  • Teacher detained for raping pupils in SW China  • Roundup: Dairy price collapse prompts dire warnings for New Zealand economy  • Public canoodling faces divergent opinions  • China to spend 1.6 bln on wetlands protection  • Development focus of New Zealand delegation to PNG, Solomon Islands  • Strong earthquake hits Rwanda  • U.N. agrees to lend Cambodia maps for border line verification with Vietnam  • 2nd LD Writethru: UN Security Council slams deadly terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia  
You are here: 　 Home

Republican front-runner not rules out third-party presidential bid

Xinhua, August 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

Front-runner of the Republican presidential field Donald Trump on Thursday refused to rule out a third-party run for U.S. presidency if he does not win the Republican nomination.

"I will not make the pledge at this time," Trump said at the beginning of the first Republican primary debate when a moderator of the debate asked the top 10 candidates if they would pledge to support whoever wins the nomination.

Trump said that though he hopes to run his campaign as a Republican and support the eventual nominee, he could not for now take the option of an independent run off the table.

The possibility of a third-party run first surfaced in June when Trump, the New York real estate mogul famous for his inflammatory remarks about immigration and aggressive rebukes against other candidates and the Republican establishment, complained publicly that he was not treated fairly by the Republican National Committee (RNC).

In a previous interview with the U.S. daily The Hill, Trump accused the RNC of not being "supportive" of his campaign, though he did not flesh out details.

"I'll have to see how I' m being treated by the Republicans," Trump said then. "If they're not fair, that would be a factor (for running independently)."

Though standing atop all polls in the Republican field, among which many had registered a double-digit lead to the second-ranking candidate, Trump was seen by many as destructive to the Republican Party's long-term efforts to reach out to Hispanic voters, whose influence in the election cycle was increasing.

If Trump eventually decides to launch a third party campaign, he would deliver a heavy blow to the Republican Party who was scrambling to clinch the Oval office after eight-year occupation by a Democrat president, as votes critical to whoever becomes the Republican nominee could be snatched by a third-party candidate. Endi