Report: Trump Talks Brokered Convention In Surprise Meeting With RNC Chair

FILE - In this Monday, March 14, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump holds a plane-side rally in a hanger at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna, Ohio. Fear of a changing America... FILE - In this Monday, March 14, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump holds a plane-side rally in a hanger at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna, Ohio. Fear of a changing America is fueling some of the anger playing out publicly around Trump's bid for the GOP presidential nomination, historians Ken Burns and Henry Louis Gates Jr. said Monday. Trump is "speaking to a need and a deep set of fears within a large segment of the American community," added Gates, a Harvard University scholar and host of a genealogy show on PBS. "Those fears need to be assuaged, and policies formulated to meet the needs of those worried about their future," he said. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) MORE LESS
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Republican frontrunner Donald Trump met with top party brass in Washington Thursday, days after the billionaire publicly recanted his pledge to back the eventual GOP nominee.

While the meeting was slated to last for about 10 minutes, NBC News reported Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus and Trump met for nearly an hour to talk about delegate allocation in a possible brokered convention.

Concerns about how the bombastic Republican being the party standard-bearer could affect down-ballot races was also discussed, according to the network.

The RNC also launched a site Wednesday to inform the public on the protocol in a brokered convention.

While the gaggle of news networks camped outside the RNC headquarters broadcast Trump smiling and waving to the crowd as he left, Trump did not make public remarks about the meeting, only tweeting the meeting was “very nice.”

The RNC downplayed the meeting in a statement.

“The Chairman is in constant communication with all the candidates and their campaigns about the primaries, general election, and the convention,” the statement said. “Meeting and phone conversations with candidates and their campaigns are common and will increase as we get closer to November.”

After Trump was asked at a Tuesday town hall event whether he would still adhere to the RNC’s pledge, Trump replied, “No, I don’t anymore.”

The RNC pledge was first circulated among GOP candidates in September 2015 as a largely ceremonial unifying gesture when Trump’s insurgent campaign began to gain traction.

The meeting also comes on the heels of Trump’s comment that if abortion was outlawed, women who got abortions should be punished. He later said that only abortion providers should be punished if abortion was illegal.

This story has been updated.

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