As their presumptive nominee continues an unrelenting string of bluster and gaffe, Republicans against Donald Trump continue to search for a way to block him from becoming the party’s standard-bearer.
Last month, the #neverTrump campaign focused on finding an independent presidential candidate who would either thwart any chance at a Trump presidency or maybe even win in November. Now, the battle has shifted to the summer’s convention, as GOP delegates are plotting to change the rules and unbind delegates from voting for the New York real estate mogul. “This literally is an ‘Anybody but Trump’ movement,” Kendal Unruh, a Republican delegate from Colorado, told the Washington Post.
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Trump, under fire for his congratulatory tweets after the massacre in Orlando and his racist tirade against a Mexican-American judge, responded with trademark outrage. "I have tremendous support and get the biggest crowds by far and any such move would not only be totally illegal but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying," Trump said in a statement. "People that I defeated soundly in the primaries will do anything to get a second shot—but there is no mechanism for it to happen."
In a rally in Las Vegas, Trump went so far as to call the entire effort a “hoax.” "Believe me. By these people right here, it's all made up by the press. OK? It's all made up. It's, it's, it's a hoax, I'm telling you," Trump said.
The candidate’s poll numbers are worsening, as Democrats continue to sharpen their attacks. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads Trump by 5.8 points nationally, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average, and progressive leaders like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren are hammering Trump at every turn.
"Every day we learn more about him, and every day it becomes clearer that he is just a small, insecure money-grubber who doesn't care about anyone or anything that doesn't have the Trump name splashed all over it. Every day it becomes clearer that he is a thin-skinned, racist, sexist bully," the Massachusetts Democrat said at the New Hampshire Democratic State Convention. "Every day it becomes clearer that he will never be president of the United States."
The Orlando massacre has inspired Trump to repeat some of his more controversial proposals regarding immigration and Muslims, and on Sunday he called for increased racial profiling as a law enforcement tool against terrorism.
"I think profiling is something that we're going to have to start thinking about as a country," Trump said, according to Reuters . "You look at Israel and you look at others, and they do it and they do it successfully. And you know, I hate the concept of profiling, but we have to start using common sense," he said.
Trump also repeated calls for monitoring of mosques. "If you go to France right now, they're doing it in France. In fact, in some instances they're closing down mosques."
