WASHINGTON—Donald Trump’s plan to ban Muslims from entering the United States is shoving the Republican Party to the edge of chaos, abruptly pitting GOP leaders against their own presidential front-runner and jeopardizing the party’s longtime drive to attract minorities.
Unbowed, Trump fired a searing warning Tuesday via Twitter to fellow Republicans carping about his proposal. A majority of his supporters, he tweeted, “would vote for me if I departed the GOP & ran as an independent.”
The crossfire between Trump and frustrated Republicans became a media blur the day after the billionaire businessman announced his plan. Beleaguered 2016 rivals condemned his proposal and complained that his divisive positions were dominating attention in the crowded Republican contest. Party elders, meanwhile, warned that too much criticism might indeed push him to launch a third-party bid that could hand the presidential election to the Democrats.
And Republicans up for re-election in the Senate grew terse in the Capitol hallways as they were asked again and again to respond to Trump’s remarks — a glimpse of their political futures if the former reality show star captures the GOP nomination.
“This is not conservatism,” declared House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Republican Party’s top elected leader. “What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for. And more importantly, it’s not what this country stands for.”
One by one, Republican officials across the country lashed out at Trump’s plan, which calls for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” to help quell the threat of terrorism.
But party leaders are well aware that he could leave the GOP, run as an independent and challenge the party’s presidential nominee next year. It’s a threat they have long feared.
The Republican Party, said Jeb Bush adviser Ana Navarro, is stuck between “a rock and a jerk” less than eight weeks before the first primary-season votes are cast in Iowa.
In Mississippi, Republican National Committee member Henry Barbour said Trump’s comments “aren’t worthy of someone who wants to occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.” He said Trump would be a “disaster politically for the GOP if he won the nomination.”
