WASHINGTON — The head of the Republican National Committee, responding to demands from increasingly worried party leaders, spent nearly an hour Wednesday on the phone with Donald Trump, urging the presidential candidate to tone down his inflammatory comments about immigration that have infuriated a key election constituency.
The call from Chairman Reince Priebus, described by donors and consultants briefed on the conversation and confirmed by the RNC, underscores the extent to which Trump has gone from an embarrassment to a cause for serious alarm among top Republicans.
But there is little they can do about the mogul and reality-television star, who draws sustenance from controversy and attention.
Rather than backing down from his comments about illegal immigrants — whom he characterized as rapists and killers, among other things — Trump has amplified his remarks at every opportunity, including in a round of interviews Wednesday.
He insisted to NBC News that he has “nothing to apologize for” in his repeated remarks about Mexicans. But he also predicted that, if he secures the GOP nomination, “I’ll win the Latino vote.”
Few seem to think he has a chance of becoming his party’s 2016 standard-bearer, even though he is running near the head of the pack in some key states. Summer poll numbers for novelty candidates such as Trump tend to be as perishable as ice cream cones.
“I think he’ll self-destruct relatively quickly,” said former senator Robert F. Bennett of Utah. “But if … Trump can keep this going, it will be very worrisome.”
