Republican insiders aren't trying to steal the GOP presidential nomination from Donald Trump, Michael Reagan tells
Newsmax TV, dismissing persistent talk of an
establishment effort to block the GOP front-runner.
In remarks Friday to "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth, the son of the late President Ronald Reagan says Trump will likely be unable to reach the mandated 1,237 delegates prior to the Republican National Convention in July — and it won't be a first.
"It's interesting to hear … everyone talk about the establishment wants to take [the nomination] away from him," Reagan said. "Who wants to take it away from Donald Trump is two guys" — Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — "not the political insiders, per say, but two people who are in fact trying to beat him."
Watch
Newsmax TV on
DirecTV Ch. 349,
Dish Ch. 223 and
Verizon FiOS Ch. 115. Get
Newsmax TV on your cable system —
Click Here Now
Reagan says his own father in 1976, in the primary race against incumbent President Gerald Ford, "didn't have the delegates going in."
"We played our games, we did the best we could, and we ended up not winning on the first ballot," he said. "It's not because we didn't try and that's just part of the game. That's part of the process. I don't know why everybody's getting so upset about it."
Reagan also said the fiery rhetoric on the primary campaign trail is also part of the process.
"In the primaries it is battle," he said. "Everybody's talking about 'let's be unified, let's all come together, let's all love each other.' That happens at the convention or after the convention. It does not happen prior to the convention."
"We got to quit being babies about this and understand what politics is," he added. "It is a blood sport. Get used to it."
Though Reagan blasted Trump's choice of Paul Manafort to oversee Trump's delegate operations and strategy heading into a likely
contested Republican National Convention — Reagan said he fired Manafort from his father's campaign in 1980 — radio and television commentator Ellis Henican praised the veteran's "bare knuckles" approach.
"I think he's a pro," Henican said. "I think he's a bare-knuckles player. "Roger Stone, I put him in the same category. I would say they're ascendant in the Trump campaign right now."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.