The Beginning of the End for Trump? The Donald Signs RNC Loyalty Pledge

Hated insurgent Donald Trump has finally bowed to pressure and signed off on the Stalinist loyalty oath concocted by the Republican party establishment. The pledge was delivered to him by RNC boss Reince Priebus who was under mounting pressure by the big money donors to bring the bombastic billionaire outsider to heel. How the pledge will affect the Donald’s lead in the polls and whether it will give the green light for the entire stable of establishment candidates to go for his throat has yet to be seen. However, to those who ardently supported him due to his independent status, the agreement to not run as a third-party candidate and support the nominee – effectively surrendering his leverage –there has to be more than a bit of a feeling of betrayal.

Trump’s acceptance of the new rules of engagement are reported by CNN in the story “Donald Trump signs RNC loyalty pledge”:

Donald Trump has signed the pledge.

The Republican presidential front-runner met privately with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus Thursday afternoon, and soon after, came out to the lobby of Trump Tower to declare that he has signed a loyalty pledge. This means Trump has promised to support the party's eventual nominee -- whoever that may be -- and that he will not run as a third-party candidate.

"The best way for the Republicans to win is if I win the nomination and go directly against whoever they happen to put up. And for that reason, I have signed the pledge," Trump said, holding up the paper. "So I will be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican Party and for the conservative principles for which it stands."

He added: "We will go out and fight hard, and we will win."

All 17 Republican presidential candidates have now pledged to support the GOP's eventual presidential nominee, Priebus announced Thursday evening in a statement, billing it as a sign of "party unity."

But if Trump's official declaration of allegiance to the party serves to calm the nerves of establishment Republicans -- at least for now -- it could also invite backlash from some of the bombastic candidate's die-hard supporters.

Trump has propelled himself to the top of the polls by casting himself as an anti-establishment, outsider candidate, railing against career politicians and the Washington political class.

Signing an RNC pledge complicates that image.

The enthusiasm that Trump brought to a large segment of the party base struck mortal terror into the hearts of Priebus and the elite who much like the Democrats with Queen Hillary had already decided on their 2016 standard bearer “Jeb!”. Now a lot of those folks are naturally going to feel that they have been sold out again with the memory of the Boehner-McConnell backstabbing of November 2014 still fresh in their minds. While the Trump public relations team talked it up as a victory it may soon prove to the moment when the wave crested and then began to recede as the establishment has reasserted control over the process.

Whoops: Super PAC’s Iowa Mass Mailing Flyer Has Jeb! With One Black Hand

Establishment golden boy John Ellis Bush aka “Jeb!” has had a rough go of it so far in the early going of the GOP primary season. The family brand name has been trumped by the Donald and the former Florida governor has been struggling to gain traction in the polls. One big problem with Dubya’s younger brother is that he doesn’t have any of his notorious sibling’s personality and that has contributed to lackluster performances in the debates and on the stump that have alarmed donors.

Mr. Bush has been cranking up his condemnations of Donald Trump as of late – primarily lame Frank Luntz style bullshit accusing him of being a Democrat – and is even starting to flip-flop on his “moderate” immigration stance. So considering that he has enough trouble already it hardly behooves him that his Super PAC has just made a major error in a mass mailing to thousands of people in all-important Iowa.

The Bush Super PAC, Right to Rise, has to be looking for some new Photoshop experts this morning after the embarrassing mailing of 85,000 flyers to Iowans incorrectly shows the king in waiting with one black hand. With the money that must have gone into the mailing you would think that it would have been scrutinized a bit better by the quality control folks.

As reported by NBC News in the story “Jeb Bush Super PAC Mailer Has Awkward Photo Goof”:

Well, this is awkward.

The Jeb Bush super PAC Right to Rise sent a mailer to more than 85,000 Iowa voters, but something is a bit off in the photo of the group's favorite 2016 presidential nominee.

The group also tweeted the photo as a teaser for the mailer. Take a close look at Bush in the second photo of their tweet and you'll see that his left hand appears several shades darker than the rest of his skin.

Liberal news blog ThinkProgress accused the group of superimposing the GOP nominee's head onto the body of a black man, while TIME pointed out the background in the picture is actually a stock photo of Cedar Rapids.

Perhaps it is Bush's entire body pasted onto the stock photo and the mailer's creator just got a little carried away with Photoshop's Burn tool, which is used to darken parts of an image. Whatever the case, it appears to be a pretty big Photoshop fail on someone's part.

For “Jeb!” it is another problem that he doesn’t need as his organization is working desperately to overcome his underwhelming performance so far. It also can’t exactly be bolstering the confidence of Iowans who are placed on a pedestal by the national media for their titanic importance in setting the course for the other 49 states in the presidential race. It’s not as if that photo op of Bush manning the grill to cook pork chops for the peasants wasn’t phony enough and now this ugly mistake gets delivered to their mailboxes – even Iowans may start thinking that something is amiss with this guy.