‘Never Trump’ movement lives despite his Republican Party triumph | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Now that he’s vanquished all his rivals, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump faces perhaps the most daunting task of his unconventional White House run: rallying a deeply fractured Republican Party behind his candidacy.

If the immediate aftermath of the bombastic New York billionaire’s dominating win in the Indiana primary is any indication, gaining the support of wary Republicans – from moderates to tea party types to neoconservatives – appears to be a difficult, perhaps impossible, mission.

Trump acknowledged as much Wednesday, telling NBC’s “Today” show that he’s confident he can unite much of of the party but perhaps not all.

“Some of it I don’t want,” he said. “There were statements made about me, that those people can go away and maybe come back in eight years after we serve two terms. But, honestly, there are some people I really don’t want. I don’t think it’s necessary. People will be voting for me; they’re not voting for the party.”

Though beaten in the latest primary, the “NeverTrump” forces within the Republican Party aren’t backing down from their refusal to support their party’s all-but-certain nominee.

Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker told reporters in Boston that he won’t vote for Trump, though he added that he “sincerely doubts” that he would vote for Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Mark Salter, a former top aide for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called Trump “wholly unfit for office” Tuesday night and said he’d vote for Clinton. “I’m with her,” he said in a tweet Tuesday night.

Clinton “is not a conservative, but she’s the more conservative choice and the least reckless one,” Salter told McClatchy. “I don’t expect her to be a good president, but she won’t pull us out of NATO (or) . . . round up 12 million” immigrants who are living in the United States illegally.

Guy Benson, political editor of the conservative website Town Hall and a Fox News contributor, tweeted, “Much to my deep chagrin (& astonishment – 8 months ago), for the first time in my life, I will not support the GOP nominee for president.”

Tony Fratto, who was deputy assistant press secretary under President George W. Bush, tweeted, “Not a dime from me for RNC or any candidate who has a kind word for Trump or talks of ‘unity.’ ”

They’re not alone. A Pew Research Center poll last month found that 56 percent of registered Republican voters think that disagreements within the party will keep many from supporting Trump as its nominee while 38 percent say the party will unite behind him.

Still, some Republicans think it’s possible to have a unified party heading into November’s election. After all, nothing can bring people together more than winning, which Trump has done a lot of in the primary season.

And nothing can make Republicans stand shoulder to shoulder more than the thought of having another Clinton in the White House. As he marches closer to getting the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination on the first ballot, Trump has focused more of his verbal attacks on Hillary Clinton.

“I think the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency is a unifying factor,” said conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, whose unsuccessful 1992 Republican presidential bid caused rifts within the party. “I think there’s a real disposition on the part of party leaders and people in the party to unite.”

Buchanan, who’s been criticized by some Republicans for his “culture wars” speech at the 1992 convention, said Trump could also draw more Republicans to his side by respecting the party’s platform.

But Trump has already said he’d like to see the party’s abortion plank amended to allow abortions in cases of rape, incest or if the woman’s life is in danger.

“My guess is he will not go to the mat on that when he gets out there, because to a lot of social conservatives, that’s sacrosanct,” Buchanan said.

Sal Russo, a veteran Sacramento-based Republican strategist who got his start as an aide for Ronald Reagan, said Trump was facing the same party unity questions that Reagan faced in 1980.

“When Reagan picked George H.W. Bush, it showed the Republican establishment that he was someone they could work with,” Russo said. “If Trump picks . . . a John Kasich type who’s well-respected across the party, I think that goes a long way.”

Some anti-Trump Republicans, such as Our Principles PAC Chair Katie Parker, think that having Trump as the nominee will doom the party with female voters in November because of comments he’s made about Fox News’ Megyn Kelly and other women.

A CNN/ORC poll in March found that 73 percent of female voters had negative views of Trump while only 26 percent saw him positively.

Kellyanne Conway, who handled research and media outreach for a presidential political action committee that backed Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, thinks that with Cruz and Kasich out of the race, Trump now has time to work on improving his numbers with female voters.

“This will be time to re-engage with Republican women,” Conway said. “Most of them will support the party because they don’t support Hillary. Plus, Donald Trump as the nominee will have the full resources, the time and treasure of the national party. And that’s not nothing.”

No matter what Trump does, a unified Republican Party before or after July’s convention in Cleveland isn’t going to happen, according to Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California and a former communications strategist for McCain and other Republicans.

“It probably can’t be done,” Schnur said. “It’s hard to imagine a scenario that a plurality of Republicans who think poorly of him will get behind him.”

Chad Groover, the Republican Party chair in South Carolina’s Greenville County, can’t imagine it either. Groover first endorsed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, then shifted allegiance to Cruz after Bush exited the race. Now he’s trying to figure out what to do.

Groover was all-in for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s 2012 Republican presidential bid, waving the party flag as a member of Romney’s legal team in Virginia. He won’t do the same for Trump.

“It would require personal sacrifice, and I’m not sacrificing for him,” Groover said before the polls closed in Indiana on Tuesday. “You have to have admiration for your candidate.”