I will never, ever understand how the entire Republican party lined up behind this guy.

Before Trump was elected, they were all vocal about how unfit he was. Too stupid. Too rude.

Then he got the nomination, and they all bent the knee, and became so loyal to him that they protected him from facing the consequences of his insurrection, even when he put their lives in danger.

This is great news IMO

He'll run on his own Freedom Party ticket and we'll get a 3-party election. Oh no, now the rightwing votes are split. Bummer!

Then don't let him debate. Why is this hard?

Trump is loyal to no one but himself. Even if he did sign it he would never honor it.

Wow, so the shit show begins even before we had even one gop debate. Article states you can't participate if you don't sign the pledge to support the eventual nominee.

This is going to be really interesting....

Of course not, he has no intention of debating. He'll say the rules are unfair and people are being mean to him.

A substantial fraction of their base is his cult now, and the Republicans know that they cannot win without his support. Ultimately they will bow to his will because the parts of the party which have not been utterly brainwashed realize that it is currently their only path to victory, no matter how distasteful that is.

Split the vote. Please.

Huh. Well that's sure odd.

“I wouldn’t sign the pledge,” Trump told host Eric Bolling. “They want you to sign a pledge, but I can name three or four people that I wouldn’t support for president. So right there there’s a problem."

Is this all that's in the pledge? To support the nominee? I mean, if I were Christie or any other candidate, I wouldn't sign a pledge to potentially support Trump.

How many times you think this guy will run for president? If he loses again, will he just keep running until he is dead?

Please run as a separate candidate and dilute the R vote. Fuckin please give the Dems the easiest possible win.

Looking at it objectively, he actually shouldn't be participating in the debates anyway. He has an insurmountable lead that's growing by the day, and his next challenger is struggling to hold on to double digits. He gains absolutely nothing by participating in the debates, and puts himself at risk by participating in a debate where literally every other candidate would be dogpiling on him hoping to trip him up.

Now granted, he wouldn't sign that loyalty pledge and may not even participate in the debates for his own self-serving reasons, but those reasons and legitimate political strategy just happen to align right now. Even if he didn't have his own self-serving reasons, most political advisors would be advising him to do the same thing anyway.

Your two party system is shit and everyone should be trying their hardest to force something else like STV.

Nice bit of schadenfreude, since there's no primary without Trump, and Trump is almost certain to lose in another general. In the immortal words of Lindsay Graham from 2016, "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed. And we will deserve it."

I mean, I can't say I disagree with him at all in this case. Loyalty pledges are fucked.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would not sign a loyalty pledge required by the Republican National Committee for participation in the first GOP debate this month.

During the interview, Trump also said he would announce next week whether he will participate in the Aug. 23 debate in Milwaukee, though a refusal to sign the loyalty pledge would make him ineligible under the RNC's criteria.

The loyalty pledge also asks candidates to agree not to participate in any non-RNC sanctioned debate for the remainder of the election cycle.

Trump, Christie and Hutchinson are among at least eight candidates who appear to have met the donor and polling thresholds required to participate in the debates.

Former Vice President Mike Pence was the latest candidate to announce he had qualified for the debate, which will be hosted by Fox News.

NBC News reported in June that Trump was exploring potential counterprogramming during the first debate, according to people familiar with his deliberations.

I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Trump will only support a candidate who will pardon him, and maybe give him "an awesome job", like a diplomatic mission with diplomatic immunity. Saudi Arabia or some other rich kleptocracy, though, not just any s***hole country. Promising to support just any schmo, beforehand? There is no upside for Trump on that one.