{"id":2443,"date":"2016-01-25T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T17:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/trump-and-gop-leaders-realizing-they-may-need-each-other\/"},"modified":"2016-01-25T09:00:13","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T17:00:13","slug":"trump-and-gop-leaders-realizing-they-may-need-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/trump-and-gop-leaders-realizing-they-may-need-each-other\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and GOP leaders realizing they may need each other"},"content":{"rendered":"

DES MOINES, Iowa<\/strong> \u2014 Donald Trump and some mainstream Republicans are engaged in a long-distance flirtation. Both sides are coming to the realization that they\u2019ll need each other if the billionaire businessman becomes the party\u2019s presidential nominee.<\/p>\n

The GOP establishment is no fonder of Trump than when he first roiled the campaign last summer with his controversial comments about immigrants and women. But with voting beginning in just over a week, his durability atop preference polls has pushed some donors, strategists and party elders to grudgingly accept the prospect of his winning the nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d better stop hoping for something else and accept the possibility that he\u2019s our nominee and be prepared to rally around him if that\u2019s the case,\u201d said Fred Malek, a top Republican presidential fundraiser.<\/p>\n

Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican nominee who represented Kansas in the House and Senate for decades, said of Trump: \u201cHe\u2019s got this personality where I do believe he could work with Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, too, has started to suggest that he\u2019d look for ways to work with Republican leaders if he wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a dealmaker who will get things done,\u201d he said Thursday during an event in Las Vegas. \u201cThere\u2019s a point at which \u2014 let\u2019s get to be a little establishment. We got to get things done, folks, OK?\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the establishment\u2019s growing acceptance of Trump\u2019s electoral prospects so far hasn\u2019t manifested itself in tangible support for his campaign. The real estate mogul has not been endorsed by any congressional lawmakers or governors, nor are there any indications of a big wave of major donors planning to get involved with his campaign, despite Trump\u2019s assertion that he\u2019s received \u201cso many calls\u201d from wealthy and influential Republicans.<\/p>\n

If anything, the most visible signs of support for Trump\u2019s campaign in recent days have come from those who see themselves as outside the Republican establishment. Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and a favorite of the tea party insurgency, announced her support for him on Tuesday. Amy Kremer, the former chairman of the Tea Party Express organization, announced plans this week to launch a super PAC backing Trump\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing I know for sure is that he absolutely is 100 percent pro-American and he loves this country and wants to restore it to greatness,\u201d Kremer said of Trump. \u201cAt this point, I really believe he is the only one with the ability to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the mainstream Republican reckoning with Trump is rooted in deep disdain for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the businessman\u2019s closest rival. Cruz is seen as more likely to try to upend the web of lobbyists, donors and other powerbrokers who have long wielded enormous influence in the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

Liz Mair, a communications operative who is running one of the GOP\u2019s few anti-Trump efforts, said donors affiliated with other candidates would rather let Trump beat Cruz in the early voting states than let their least-favorite senator gain momentum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019d rather that he kills Cruz by winning in Iowa and New Hampshire and then try to take him down,\u201d Mair said.<\/p>\n

Even as he\u2019s taken up the anti-establishment mantle, Trump has made some quiet overtures to GOP powerbrokers. He met with Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson last year and has also reached out to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, though he hasn\u2019t spoken directly with House Speaker Paul Ryan.<\/p>\n

There are still big swaths of establishment-minded Republican voters and officials who staunchly oppose Trump\u2019s candidacy and believe both he and Cruz are unelectable in November. They say there\u2019s still plenty of time for a more mainstream candidate to mount a serious challenge.<\/p>\n

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are all seeking to beat expectations in Iowa, then be a top finisher in New Hampshire. Ohio Gov. John Kasich is also in the mix in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

Having already been endorsed by four senators, Rubio\u2019s campaign says it\u2019s preparing to unveil a series of endorsements from high-profile elected officials in the coming weeks, part of an effort to push more mainstream Republicans to coalesce behind his candidacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not lining up behind Donald Trump,\u201d Rubio said Friday on Fox News when asked about Trump\u2019s establishment support. \u201cThey\u2019re just telling people their opinion about Ted Cruz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, John Catsimatidis, a major Republican and Democratic donor, said it\u2019s time for the GOP to accept that when it comes to Trump\u2019s strength, \u201cthe facts are the facts.\u201d After donating to several campaigns, including Bush\u2019s and a super PAC supporting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker before he dropped out of the race in the fall, Catsimatidis says he\u2019s now talking up Trump, a longtime friend, in conversations with other big money donors.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe showed his toughness and we need somebody tough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump himself has been a fixture of the New York donor class for decades and already has deep relationships with many establishment players. He often talks about how he\u2019s been in politics all his life and has been seen as the \u201cfair-haired boy\u201d showering contributions on both Republicans and Democrats.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP writer Julie Bykowitz in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Jill Colvin at http:\/\/twitter.com\/colvinj, Julie Pace at http:\/\/twitter.com\/jpaceDC and Steve Peoples at http:\/\/twitter.com\/sppeoples<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DES MOINES, Iowa \u2014 Donald Trump and some mainstream Republicans are engaged in a long-distance flirtation. Both sides are coming to the realization that they\u2019ll need each other if the billionaire businessman becomes the party\u2019s presidential nominee. The GOP establishment is no fonder of Trump than when he first roiled the campaign last summer with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":2444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}