GOP Welcomes Donald Trump To Dallas While Simultaneously Keeping Its Distance

The Donald Trump roadshow has officially landed in Dallas, Texas, and the citizenry is decidedly mixed on whether that’s good or bad news. It appears the Republican party is also decidedly split on whether appearing with and actively supporting Donald Trump is a positive for the GOP. On the one hand, Trump is clearly very popular with a certain part of the populace in Dallas and other traditionally red parts of the country. On the other hand, Trump has made comments in the wake of the Orlando shooting that have made him even quite unpopular in other parts of the country the Republicans would like to win over.

When it comes to the Republicans who reside in and around Dallas, it appears the decision has been made to welcome Trump to town, while also making sure they are not appearing on the same stage as Mr. Trump. Reince Priebus has been busy in the last few days, tweeting out that everything is fine between the GOP and Trump, while politicians like Paul Ryan and John Kasich have been making it clear they don’t agree with what Trump’s saying.

The attempts to distance the GOP from Donald Trump, while also wanting to look as though they fully support Donald Trump has led to some rather odd encounters. When Trump kicks off his rally in Dallas, there will be more than 4,000 people who stood in line in order to see the presidential candidate. At the same time, CBS DFW reports the head of the Republican party in the Dallas-Forth Worth area has gone on record as saying he won’t meet with Trump while Trump is in the area.

In fact, neither the party chairman for the county, Mark Montgomery, or the executive director will attend any part of the Dallas rally for Trump. While neither man is willing to admit they are skipping the rally because they don’t want to be seen on the same stage with Trump, there are few people who believe they are really missing the event because they had a prior commitment. The two men claim they had plans weeks ago before the Trump campaign was willing to tell them when it would be held.

“It’s not a slight. That’s just the way things worked out. We got late notice and it’s hard to change things at the last minute.”

It appears Montgomery isn’t the only person who is skipping seeing Trump while he’s in the Dallas area. Texas senator John Cornyn is going to be in the state at the same time as Trump, but he’s claiming their schedules aren’t going to match up. Cornyn recently talked to the Dallas Morning News and said he was glad Trump was coming to the state but he wouldn’t be able to head to San Antonio when Trump was going for a fundraiser.

“I’m glad for him to come and to interact with more Texans. They can kick the tires and figure out what they think. My experience has been that meeting him in person is a little different experience than watching him on TV on the stage,” Cornyn told reporters during a weekly call when discussing Trump.

While the Dallas GOP and the Texas Republican establishment might not be willing to admit it just yet, a pattern is emerging in one of the reddest of red states. If Donald Trump thinks he’s bridging gaps and making friends it appears as though the Republicans in the Dallas area are not the ones he’s going to have in his corner when the smoke clears and the election gets real.

[Photo by Branden Camp/Getty Images]