--- title: Republican Debate: Donald Trump Makes Up With GOP description: Donald Trump had kinder words for the GOP establishment than he ever has during his insurgent presidential campaign canonical: https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-16T04:33:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:24:59.792Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Makes Up With the Republican Party og:description: "I have gained great respect for the Republican leadership" og:url: https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54523927d3f21c30/69887593196cf483ee0397bd/republican-debate-gop-presidential-020.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: CNN Republican Presidential Debate, Las Vegas, America - 15 Dec 2015 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Makes Up With the Republican Party twitter:description: "I have gained great respect for the Republican leadership" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54523927d3f21c30/69887593196cf483ee0397bd/republican-debate-gop-presidential-020.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Makes Up With the Republican Party  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Dec 16, 2015 4:33 AM UTC  Mandatory Credit: Photo by Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock (5494358bi) Donald Trump CNN Republican Presidential Debate, Las Vegas, America - 15 Dec 2015 Mandatory Credit: Photo by Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock (5494358bi) Donald Trump CNN Republican Presidential Debate, Las Vegas, America - 15 Dec 2015Matt Baron—BEI/Shutterstock  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Dec 16, 2015 4:33 AM UTC Donald Trump had kinder words for the GOP establishment than he ever has during his insurgent presidential campaign, using a moment late in [the fifth Republican debate Tuesday](http://time.com/4149585/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-jeb-bush-cnn/) to say he won’t mount a third-party run as he has so often threatened. “I have gained great respect for the Republican leadership,” Trump said. “I am very committed to the Republican Party. I feel very honored to be the frontrunner.” “I’m in first place, not by a little bit, but by a lot,” Trump told CNN’s Chris Cuomo after the debate. “I want to do it the old fashioned way,” he said of winning the White House, before noting that he hasn’t even started attacking Hillary Clinton yet. “I haven’t even really gone after her yet,” he said. “I haven’t even focused on Hillary, when I do I think she’s going to fall.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Makes Up With the Republican Party","datePublished":"2015-12-16T04:33:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:24:59.792Z","description":"\"I have gained great respect for the Republican leadership\"","url":"https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/","keywords":["Debates","Republican Party","Donald Trump","Republican debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54523927d3f21c30/69887593196cf483ee0397bd/republican-debate-gop-presidential-020.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54523927d3f21c30/69887593196cf483ee0397bd/republican-debate-gop-presidential-020.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"CNN Republican Presidential Debate, Las Vegas, America - 15 Dec 2015","caption":"Donald Trump at the Republican presidential debate, in Las Vegas on Dec .15, 2015.","creditText":"Matt Baron—BEI/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4150989/republican-debate-donald-trump-gop/","name":"Donald Trump Makes Up With the Republican Party"}}]}] ```