Donald Trump assured smooth nomination at Cleveland convention after party rebellion is easily quashed

Trump campaign and Republican hierarchy worked hand in hand to muffle dissent

The Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, venue for the Republican convention (Getty)

The nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee at next week’s party convention in Cleveland is all but assured, after efforts by a dissident group of anti-Trump members to change the voting rules to derail him were summarily thwarted.

Members of the #NeverTrump movement had pinned their hopes on forcing a change in the rules of convention procedure that would have unbound delegates to allow them to vote with their consciences rather than according to the results of primary voting in their respective states.

However, the group was easily pushed back at a meeting of the so-called Rules Committee convened in Cleveland in the run-up to the convention, which formally opens on Monday and will continue for four days.

The group had always faced an uphill battle as both the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee had been toiling feverishly for weeks to ensure the convention could not dissolve into a messy "floor fight" which would have put party disunity on display for the whole country to see.

Their defeat means that Mr Trump should be granted a smooth coronation, at least as far as proceedings inside the Quicken Loans Arena are concerned. That does not mean that anti-Trump protests outside might not draw attention particularly if, as some fear, they turn rowdy or even violent.

Mr Trump sought to generate fresh momentum going into this weekend and the convention itself by announcing his running mate on Friday – Governor Mike Pence of Indiana, a social conservative who will be seen as a safe, if not thrilling, pick.

Mr Pence comes from the crucial Midwest, Indiana itself is likely to be a swing state in November. He presence on the ticket will reassure conservative Republicans who have voiced suspicions that Mr Trump is not really one of them. But his hardline positions on abortion and gay rights may not help Mr Trump win over more progressive independent voters, however.

A planned press conference on Friday with Messrs Trump and Pence together was shelved because of the Nice lorry attack in France. Instead Mr Trump confirmed his choice via Twitter, surely a first in American politics. The press conference will now be on Saturday.

In two quick votes at the end of a 12-hour session of the Rules Committee in Cleveland on Thursday, members made sure that any notion that the delegates would be free to ignore the outcomes of primary voting in their states was removed from the table.

“Anti-Trump people get crushed at Rules Committee. It was never in doubt: convention will honour will of people & nominate @realdonaldtrump,” Peter Manafort, Mr Trump's campaign manger, declared in a message on Twitter.

Mr Manafort and his allies argued that to ignore the will of voters expressed in primary and caucus votes in all 50 states would have been morally unacceptable and an insult to democratic process. There will now surely only be one floor vote to confirm the nominee and Mr Trump will easily capture the 1,237 delegates he needs.

But others, including Utah Senator Mike Lee, were clear that delegates attending the convention had a right to express their views as they saw fit. Many in the party remain deeply troubled by the ascent of Mr Trump, what his nomination could do to party unity and the fear that he has no chance of winning the presidency in November.

“This problem, this angst isn’t going to go away just because we paper over it with rules,” Mr Lee said. “So I say to Mr Trump and those aligned with him, make the case, make the case to those delegates who want to have a voice ... don't make the case that their voices should be silenced. That's not going to help, that's not going to help make him president. That's not going to help our party in the long run.”

Mr Lee and his allies failed to muster the majority they needed, however. “I have no intention of returning to those people who I rely on to keep me in office and telling them I had some part in shredding their votes,” said Ross Little Jr, a member of the Rules Committee from Louisiana.

If the nomination itself is secure, that doesn’t mean that this convention will be quite like others before it. Most notably, there are large numbers of senior Republicans who normally could be counted on to show up and jostle for speaking slots, who instead have conjured compelling (and some not so compelling) excuses to stay away because of their distaste for Mr Trump.

Former party nominee and Arizona Senator John McCain has arranged to go hiking in the Grand Canyon during convention week, apparently concerned that his own attempt to be re-elected to the US Senate could be harmed by his showing any love for the New Yorker. His fellow Senator from Arizona, Jeff Flake, has said, “I will be mowing my lawn”.