Ledger · 2016 campaign · № 18
The RNC loyalty pledge he signed on camera and tore up seven months later
Broken“[paraphrase] I will support the Republican nominee and I will not run as an independent.”
- Promised
- , Trump Tower, after meeting RNC chairman Reince Priebus; signed pledge displayed to cameras
- Overdue by
- 10 years, 5 months as of September 22, 2026
- Re-promised
- 2 times with a fresh deadline
- Topic
- Elections
- Era
- 2016 campaign
What happened
Trump signed the RNC's written loyalty pledge on September 3, 2015 and waved it at reporters, using it to defuse the threat of a third-party run. On March 29-30, 2016, at a CNN town hall, he said he no longer felt bound by it: "No, I don't anymore." The pledge was dead 209 days after he signed it. He again refused to sign the RNC's 2024 primary pledge.