Conflict between candidate and party.
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Former President Donald Trump is competing with the GOP’s fundraising operation and lashing out at its members, further complicating his status as a Republican Party leader.
Trump, without specifying his targets by name, asserted that they “do nothing but hurt the Republican Party and our great voting base — they will never lead us to Greatness.”
In an apparent attempt to elaborate, Trump issued a follow-up statement Tuesday afternoon, saying, “I fully support the Republican Party and important GOP Committees, but I do not support RINOs and fools.”
Trump added that “it is not their right to use my likeness or image to raise funds” — a reference to his growing feud with the Republican Party over its use of his name and likeness in its fundraising efforts.
Both statements were sent by Trump’s political action committee, Save America, and both statements urged his supporters to donate to that PAC. “So much money is being raised and completely wasted by people that do not have the GOP’s best interests in mind,” Trump’s latest statement claimed.
Those requests echoed Trump’s recent speech in Orlando — his first post-presidency public remarks — where he told a crowd of supporters that his own PAC was the only way to “elect ‘America First’ Republican conservatives.”