Donald Trump Warned of Republican Challenge

Donald Trump was issued a warning about the future of the Republican Party, following his Super Tuesday wins.

Speaking on Fox News, former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove urged the former president to focus on unifying the party, outlining the support his challenger Nikki Haley garnered in certain locations.

The Context

After over a dozen states voted in GOP primaries on Tuesday, Trump increased his number of delegates to 797, according to the Associated Press. As a candidate needs 1,215 delegates to secure the nomination, his results reaffirmed what was expected—that Trump is all but confirmed the Republican nominee for November's presidential elections.

However, Haley, the former South Carolina governor, achieved strong vote shares in certain states.

She won the primary in Vermont and got a large proportion of the vote in the states of Virginia, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Maine.

What We Know

Despite acknowledging Trump's success, calling Tuesday "a very good night for him," Rove said Haley should make Trump concerned about party unity. Trump has frequently called Haley "bird brain" and made disparaging comments about her on the campaign trail.

"The high command of Team Trump ought to be concerned about unifying the Republican Party," he said.

He added: "There's still some work to be done to unify the Republican Party and that's going to depend a lot on his tone tonight and whether or not he stops doing things like calling her 'Bird Brain;' and threatening that if you give money to her campaign you're going to be permanently banned, and we'll see how he does tonight.

"He did well in Iowa with his victory statement, unifying, humble, gracious. Not so good in New Hampshire, and tonight is going to be the big night and he's gonna set an important tone for either a unified Republican Party or a divided Republican Party."

Newsweek contacted a Trump representative by email to comment on this story.

Views

"Today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump," Haley campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. "That is not the unity our party needs for success."

Meanwhile, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy praised Haley and said he hopes she will play a prominent role in the future of the Republican Party.

"Nikki Haley has a bright future because either one of the two men who are up for the nomination this time to win can only serve one term," McCarthy said.

"So I think she has a very bright future and I would hope she'd be part of the future administration," he added.

What's Next?

The next primary votes and caucuses take place on Friday, when Republicans will go to the polls in American Samoa. Then, next Tuesday, Republicans will vote in Washington, Georgia, Hawaii and Mississippi.

According to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight, overall, Trump is expected to get 77.5 percent of the GOP primary vote share, while Haley, his one remaining challenger is polling at 15.7 percent.

When the primary season is over, attention will turn to the presidential election, with Trump expected to face the Democratic incumbent Joe Biden in the race for the White House.

Update 03/06/24, 3:07 a.m. ET: This story was updated to include additional information.