--- title: Donald Trump's Threat on Pledge Could Cost Him Delegates description: Donald Trump's announcement that he no longer stands by a loyalty pledge has thrown his hold on South Carolina's 50 delegates in doubt. canonical: https://time.com/4278295/donald-trump-loyalty-pledge-south-carolina-delegates/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-31T18:52:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:49:57.270Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump's Threat on Loyalty Pledge Could Cost Him Delegates og:description: From South Carolina. og:url: https://time.com/4278295/donald-trump-loyalty-pledge-south-carolina-delegates/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e23ad06d4997af8/69888d3dbc6cfc98473dc64c/donald-trump33.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaigns Near Green Bay, Wisconsin og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's Threat on Loyalty Pledge Could Cost Him Delegates twitter:description: From South Carolina. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e23ad06d4997af8/69888d3dbc6cfc98473dc64c/donald-trump33.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump's Threat on Pledge Could Cost Him South Carolina Delegates > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=d38c5986-b9ee-4283-bb0e-2094fe858863&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch the CNN Town Hall in Milwaukee In Under 3 Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): Watch the CNN Town Hall in Milwaukee In Under 3 Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zTNXJqCJ.m3u8) (2:49)  _Published 2016-03-30_ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Mar 31, 2016 6:52 PM UTC by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Mar 31, 2016 6:52 PM UTC Donald Trump’s announcement that he no longer stands by a pledge to support the GOP has thrown his hold on South Carolina’s 50 delegates in doubt. The Palmetto State was one of several that required candidates to pledge their loyalty to the party’s eventual nominee in order to secure a slot on the primary ballot. Though Trump [won all of the state’s delegates](http://time.com/4231631/south-carolina-primary-results-republican-donald-trump-ted-cruz-marco-rubio-jeb-bush/) in the Feb. 20 primary, anti-Trump forces are plotting to contest their binding to Trump because of his threat on the pledge Tuesday. The loyalty pledge is nothing new in South Carolina, where it has been required for decades, but took on new focus in light of Trump’s public musings about a third-party run or withdrawing his support from the eventual nominee if he is stopped at a contested convention. When asked about if he still would pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee [during a town hall Tuesday](http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/29/politics/donald-trump-ted-cruz-nominee-pledge/index.html) with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Trump said “No. I don’t anymore,” adding that he has been “treated very unfairly.” Trump has been [hiring staff to ensure he hangs on to delegates](http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/03/trump%5Fsue%5Frepublican%5Frnc.html) in what could be a messy convention fight, but the latest threat appears to be an unforced error on his part. South Carolina Republican Party chairman Matt Moore gives credence to the anti-Trump claims. “Breaking South Carolina’s presidential-primary-ballot pledge raises some unanswered legal questions that no one person can answer,” he tells TIME. “However, a court or national convention Committee on Contests could resolve them. It could put delegates in jeopardy.” When Trump filed for the ballot in South Carolina he [signed a pledge](http://time.com/4021474/donald-trump-republican-loyalty/) stating to “hereby affirm that I generally believe in and intend to support the nominees and platform of the Republican Party in the November 8, 2016 general election.” South Carolina has yet to select delegates to the convention, and it is a state where Trump may already be on the defensive with delegates. South Carolina delegates to the national convention must have been delegates or alternates to the state’s 2015 GOP convention, a requirement that benefits candidates who appeal to the establishment. Those delegates would be bound to Trump on the first ballot according to state and Republican National Committee (RNC) rules. The challenge, which could only be filed once delegates are selected, would seek to allow them to be free agents on the first ballot, thereby keeping Trump further from the key 1,237 figure he needs to secure the nomination. Similar challenges could also be filed in other states that added loyalty pledges. The potential fight over delegates comes as Trump is meeting with RNC chairman Reince Priebus Thursday. ## Transcript [ APPLAUSE ] Thank you. Let me ask you about Lovenduski. Initially, your campaign said this never happened, there was no video of it. You came out and said you thought this person was perhaps making it up. This reporter, Lewandowski himself tweeted, saying, I never met this reporter, I never touched this person. Now the video tape shows he clearly did touch this person. Whether or not you think it was battery or not- Excuse me, touch, I don't know what touch means. Well, he said I never touched this person. And then she says, look at my arm. Did he mislead you as well? Not at all. No, not at all. Look, I didn't know we had all these security cameras all over. By the time I found out I said, well, this is really wonderful. This exonerates him totally. She shouldn't have been touching me, okay? And you saw that she did that. Yeah, she did. She was grabbing me, twice. I looked at her, in fact, one of the great pictures is me going like this, like get away from me. Who is this person? More than six months ago you pledged to support the Republican nominee, whoever that may be. A lot has changed since then. It sounded, when I was pressing Senator Cruz on it, sounded like he was saying he'd have a hard time supporting somebody- Honestly he doesn't have to support me. I'm not asking for his support. [ CROSSTALK ] I want the people's support. Do you continue to pledge- [ APPLAUSE ] Whoever the Republican nominee is. No, I don't. You don't? We'll see who it is. So the pledge you took is null and void. The idea of supporting whoever the Republican nominee is You say you will no longer guarantee that you will support the Republican nominee. I have been treated very unfairly. After saying that you will spill the beans about Heidi Cruz, you retweeted an unflattering picture of her next to a picture of your wife. I thought it was a nice picture of Heidi, I thought it was fine. Come on. I thought it was fine, she's a pretty woman. You're running for President of the United States. Excuse me, I didn't start it. I didn't start it. Sir, with all due respect, that's the argument of a five year old. I didn't start it. No it's not, it's the argument of- The argument of a five year old- Excuse me- Is that he started it. You would say that. We are competing to win. We are not competing to stop Trump. We're competing to win the nomination. I just have to follow up. If Donald Trump is the GOP nominee, would you support him? Let me tell you my solution to that. [ LAUGH ] Donald is not gonna be the GOP nominee, we're going to beat him. [ APPLAUSE ] I'm not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and attacks my family. I gotta see what happens, if the nominee is somebody that I think is really hurting the country and dividing the country, I can't stand behind them. You develop respect for people that are in the arena. And, but you know, I've been disturbed by some of the things that I've seen and I have to think about what my word and endorsement would mean in a Presidential campaign. So I want to see how this thing finishes out, and you know what? I wanna tell ya, I think the little engine that can keeps going. I sure hope they'll endorse me for President when I'm the nominee coming out of the convention in Cleveland. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4278295/donald-trump-loyalty-pledge-south-carolina-delegates/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4278295/donald-trump-loyalty-pledge-south-carolina-delegates/"},"headline":"Trump's Threat on Pledge Could Cost Him South Carolina Delegates","datePublished":"2016-03-31T18:52:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:49:57.270Z","description":"Donald Trump's announcement that he no longer stands by a loyalty pledge has thrown his hold on South Carolina's 50 delegates in doubt.","url":"https://time.com/4278295/donald-trump-loyalty-pledge-south-carolina-delegates/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","South Carolina","republican convention","2016 Republican Convention"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e23ad06d4997af8/69888d3dbc6cfc98473dc64c/donald-trump33.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e23ad06d4997af8/69888d3dbc6cfc98473dc64c/donald-trump33.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaigns Near Green Bay, Wisconsin","caption":"GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaigns Near Green Bay, Wisconsin","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","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/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4278295/donald-trump-loyalty-pledge-south-carolina-delegates/","name":"Trump's Threat on Pledge Could Cost Him South Carolina Delegates"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch the CNN Town Hall in Milwaukee In Under 3 Minutes","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zTNXJqCJ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-03-30T13:37:03.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zTNXJqCJ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4278295/donald-trump-loyalty-pledge-south-carolina-delegates/","duration":"PT2M49S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4278295/donald-trump-loyalty-pledge-south-carolina-delegates/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```