NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Donald Trump will decide soon whether to mount a third party bid if he loses the Republican nomination for president, the real estate mogul said Saturday.
“I think over the next couple of weeks you’re going to see some things that are very interesting,” Trump said after a speech in Nashville to a gathering of tea party activists.
“We’re going to make a decision very soon,” he added, “and I think a lot of people are going to be very happy.”
Trump has so far refused to pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee, saying his refusal to commit gains him leverage over the party establishment, which has been caught off-guard by his early dominance in the race. He’s also said repeatedly that he'd prefer to run as a Republican as long as the party treats him fairly.
But to appear on the ballot in South Carolina and several other states, he'll have to pledge to support the eventual nominee.
On Saturday, Trump expressed frustration that coverage of Friday’s event focused on the discrepancy.
“I got so angry at my people because somebody put up a sign saying $100,” he said.
Trump also defended a personal attack he launched Friday against Huma Abedin, a top aide to Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been swept up in the controversy over Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
Trump again speculated that Abedin had shared classified information with her husband, former Congressman Anthony Weiner, who resigned after sending sexually explicit images of himself to women he'd met online.
A spokesman for Clinton’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said in an emailed statement Friday that there “is no place for patently false, personal attacks towards a staff member” and that Trump “should be ashamed of himself.”
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