US Presidential Elections: Republicans might still have a trump card to stop Donald Trump

Come July, the GOP could be faced with the embarrassing situation of denying nomination to the Republican majority holder. With Ted Cruz bowing out of the race following Donald Trump’s resounding victory in Indiana on Tuesday, the path to a likely November face-off with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is all but clear for the 69-year-old reality TV star-turned-politician. Until a few weeks ago, Trump’s chances of securing the nomination were murky – with both Ted Cruz and John Kasich teaming up in an attempt to stop him from gaining majority. But with the recent string of victories in the Atlantic states, Trump has gained a lot of ground – recent polls show 56 percent national support for the Republican front-runner. With just 190 delegates needed out of the remaining 520, if the polling percentage trend holds true, there seems to be nothing that can stop the ‘protest candidate’ from becoming the presidential nominee. [caption id=“attachment_2767072” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Donald Trump. AP[/caption] Nothing except a radical, bold, last-ditch measure that can be used by the Republican party at the convention in July. A nuclear option of sorts. If the delegates present at the convention can form an absolute majority, then they can change the rules of the convention, thereby freeing themselves to vote for whichever candidate they wanted, and ensuring that Trump does not get the nomination. The move, seen as undemocratic by some, is completely plausible given that the delegates set their own rules and that there is a growing discord within the GOP that could create fractions within the party, should the nomination be granted to Trump. The #NeverTrump campaign has picked up steam with every Trump victory, and the anti-Trump bandwagon now believe that this strategy could be the last chance to stop him, and save the Republican Party from destruction.

But the strategy, albeit plausible, is not without risks. A move to block the Republican majority holder might help derail an unsuitable representative but it could instigate a massive uproar, or as Trump had said, “even riots”. The move, though bold, is not the first attempt in history to stop a front-runner from securing nomination. In 1976, the ‘Anybody But Carter’ movement – an eerily similar campaign to #NeverTrump – aimed to stop Democratic front-runner Jimmy Carter from securing nomination. Like Trump, Carter too was an anti-establishment contestant who pushed the boundaries of his party’s ideology. An aggressively conservative Democrat, he was despised by some of his fellow party members with a ferocity matched by Trump’s Republican counterparts in the present scenario. But in that case, the movement to derail Carter’s momentum failed in the end. The same seems likely with Trump. Following his Indiana victory, calls of unity were issued across various political and academic establishments. Even pious Republicans vowed to vote for Democrat Hillary – political allegiance is a strong factor in American politics with as few as 7 swing-vote states out of the 50.

#NeverTrump it's official, I am voting for Hillary. First time I will ever vote for a democrat. #digusted

— Josh Rutstein (@GUFYFUT) May 4, 2016

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I'm going to fight my heart out to make sure @realDonaldTrump’s toxic stew of hatred & insecurity never reaches the White House.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 4, 2016

Indo-US relations with Trump as President In the likely scenario that the Republican party sticks it out with Trump post the convention, the once absurd possibility of Trump becoming president would turn into a very real possibility. Trump began with dismal odds of 200 to 1. Now, they are 2 to 1, a one in three chance that he would become president. This creates a serious need for deliberation over the likely influence he can have over Indo-US policy. Here are some of his recent remarks on India, its trade with and its foreign policy with Pakistan. Deliberate for yourself if his nomination is a cause of concern: