Remember this picture?

That’s Trump holding up a signed pledge swearing to not run 3rd party. This is a pledge that came after Trump stood defiant at the first debate and said he wouldn’t rule out an independent run or wouldn’t promise to vote for the nominee. He signed this pledge after pressure from the RNC – no pledge, no debates, they said.

Of course, Trump belongs to a unique subspecies of human that requires airtime to live, so forgoing debates would lead to a slow, painful death for Donald. He signed the pledge.

This of course, meant absolutely nothing, and the RNC and Reince Preibus (Remove all the vowels in his name, and you get RNC PR BS. There are no coincidences.) ate it right up. Several on both sides pointed out that there was no way to hold Trump to such a pledge, and that his supporters wouldn’t care if he broke it (He stuck to the RNC? His hair is so dreamy! *swoon*). A third party run would undoubtedly deliver the election to Hillary Clinton in a nice gift basket.

So today, Trump says this:

“If they don’t treat me with a certain amount of decorum and respect, if they don’t treat me as the front-runner, by far as the front-runner, if the playing field is not level, then certainly all options are open.”

“They said they would be honorable. So far, they — I can’t tell you if they are — but the establishment is not exactly being very good to me.”

And he also tweeted this:

A new poll indicates that 68% of my supporters would vote for me if I departed the GOP & ran as an independent.

The implication here is obvious. Trump is tacitly saying  “If I don’t get what I want, I will make Hillary win.” . Gee, what a guy!

Anyone with two functioning neurons of course knew that Trump wasn’t to be trusted. He’s made a magical overnight transformation from liberal to conservative views while saying “just trust me”, occasionally showing true colors like his stance on eminent domain and his fondness for single-payer healthcare. It’s clear he’s willing to lie to get what he wants, and this is no different.

You know what though? The RNC could have stopped this. They could have said “No. Your willingness to entertain the idea of destroying this election for us means you have no place on our debate stage”. They could have even done this again when he flirted with this rhetoric last month. Instead, they acted foolishly and thought a peace of paper would fix this problem. They didn’t. They refuse to call him out on this rhetoric. They acquiesced.

Donald Trump has the party exactly where he wants it, and Hillary couldn’t be happier.