GOP officials downplay Trump concerns after meeting
The Republican Party is unified and there is absolutely no reason to be alarmed. Or at least that was the message coming out of the meeting of top Republican donors and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort said it was a "very good meeting" and said "Mr. Trump did a great job. And we're excited," as he walked out.
Judging from the tone of meeting attendees at the Four Seasons hotel in New York, you might have forgotten for a moment that many top elected Republicans have lambasted Trump in the last week and openly expressed unhappiness with the top of the ticket as a result of his ethnically based comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over a Trump University lawsuit.
Trump, New Jersey governor and early Trump supporter Chris Christie and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus all addressed the crowd of about 70 donors. All three entered and left without taking questions from reporters. Trump only stayed at the meeting for approximately 20 minutes before leaving.
"It's time for Republicans to unite behind our next president," said Gary Emineth, a former North Dakota Republican Party chairman, who was present during the remarks. "And people are just going to have to get their mind around that."
"He's going to be a team player and going to be working with the Republican National Committee and I think you're going to see an unprecedented relationship between the two."
The unprecedented relationship between Trump and the RNC might not exactly be the kind that is beneficial to the GOP. Aside from RNC officials having to put out fires stoked by Trump's controversial comments, the Trump campaign is relying heavily on the RNC's infrastructure to win this election since the business mogul has eschewed a traditional campaign structure - leaving him without many of the tools that candidates across the spectrum typically benefit from. This includes a well-oiled fundraising machine.
"He hasn't started fundraising till just now," Emineth said. "Up until now, he's been focusing on winning the nomination."
Trump himself initially had said that he might need about $1 billion to compete with presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. However, on Wednesday, he told Bloomberg that he doesn't need anywhere close to that because of the amount of media appearances that he does.
But if there was any worry that Trump was going to be cash-strapped for the election, his team wasn't showing it.
"We'll raise what we need to raise," Manafort said.
Lew Eisenberg, a longtime Republican bundler and former finance chair of the Republican National Committee, is overseeing Trump Victory, one of the joint fundraising committees between the RNC and Trump's campaign.
"I feel that we're on the way to victory," Eisenberg said afterwards. "I don't think we've ever had this much momentum leaving a group like that that I feel today... Donald Trump will have money to win the presidential election with money left over."
When John Catsimatidis emerged, the billionaire owner of a supermarket chain and radio host, was asked if he thought Trump could unite the party, he said, "Probably...He's a very bright guy. He's very fast on his feet. And he really loves America."
"He's made a few mistakes," Castimatidis said. "I would not have criticized the judge. Even though, I could understand his feelings. [He was] probably very emotional that day."
Trump went after Curiel on multiple occasions for months in both interviews and rallies.
Castimatidis didn't seem ready to jump on, as Trump calls it, the "Trump Train." He said wasn't going to endorse anybody currently.
"I think America's going to be better off whoever's going to be the next president," he said. "Whether it's Hillary or whether it's Donald, America's going to be better off."