Donald Trump and Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus, together in March. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
More than 100 Republican officials want it. Even one sitting U.S. senator wants it.
But what does it actually mean for the Republican Party to end its relationship with Donald Trump?
We've already laid out why it may happen and why it may not. Now, what may be the biggest question of all: If it did happen, how would it work?
There are a few ways this could play out, Republican strategists tell me. Let's break down the three most likely methods the Republican Party could use to break up with Trump.
The dramatic breakup
To understand how this could work, we first have to understand what the Republican Party is doing for Trump.
Short answer: A lot.
Trump has eschewed traditional campaign infrastructure in favor of rallies. So the Republican National Committee, which helps out every presidential candidate, will be taking on an especially heavy lift this cycle to help him out. They'll coordinate direct mail. (TV advertisements are now largely in the realm of campaigns and super PACs.) They're putting together entire get-out-the-vote teams in 16 different states, my Washington Post colleagues Matea Gold and Ana Narayanswamy report. They're basically propping up critical aspects of his campaign, my Fix colleague Philip Bump writes.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus could wake up one day and decide he's done with all of that — that he's seen the writing on the polls and thinks Trump is going to lose. Henceforth, Priebus could declare (privately or otherwise), all the money, data and staff under his control will now be used solely for propping up congressional candidates.
This would be a sea change, to put it mildly. Right now, if you're a donor and you cut a check to the Republican National Committee, that money can go to Trump. But in this scenario, Priebus would make clear that the money is going to every Republican but Trump.
It's not just the flow of money that would change. The field operations the party is creating for Trump would morph into field operations for vulnerable Senate candidates in states such as Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Indiana. Republicans would stop calling potential Trump supporters and start calling potential supporters for Senate and House candidates.
But, as I detailed here, pulling the plug like this could backfire for Republicans. It would risk upsetting Trump supporters and, paradoxically, costing Republicans their majorities in Congress. Not to mention, the Republican Party doesn't just give money to Trump; it gets money from Trump (about $14 million in July).
The "it's complicated" breakup
Sort of like that relationship in high school you officially ended but didn't really — this is where the lines get murky.
The Republican Party could still support Trump by setting up teams to campaign for him in some states. Trump and the RNC would still keep sharing money through a joint fundraising committee, and the RNC would still do much of the heavy lifting for Trump's campaign.
But in other states, they'd quietly focus most of their time and energy on turning out supporters for the congressional races. Fliers would be mailed to independents in Ohio that praise Sen. Rob Portman, but don't mention Trump. The script that GOP phone bank volunteers read in Pennsylvania would talk about how important it is to keep the Senate in Republican hands instead of why Trump would make a great president.
Because this isn't a clean break, it's much more difficult to assess whether this is happening. One clue is to keep an ear open for any "blank check" language. It's an echo of the '96 presidential election when Republicans admitted their nominee, Bob Dole, was going to lose and pivoted to trying to keep control of Congress instead, so that Bill Clinton wouldn't have a "blank check." (It worked.)
We're actually already starting to see this scenario play out.
"If we fail to protect our majority in Congress, we could be handing President Hillary Clinton a blank check," said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) in a fundraising email earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has more forcefully talked about how Republicans could lose the Senate, a potential message to donors that they should help out the eight or so vulnerable Republicans who could lose their seats if or when Trump bombs.
The organic breakup
There's actually one more way Trump and the GOP could call it quits. But it would require everyone — the party, Trump and Republican voters — to come to a mutual agreement that Trump is going to lose. Pretty much the opposite of the first two breakup scenarios.
It would play out like this: The polls keep getting worse for Trump in swing states and even red states. Trump keeps stepping in controversy in a way that turns off some of his own supporters. Trump performs terribly in the debates in the fall against Clinton. And sometime between now and the election, the Republican Party wakes up and comes to the collective agreement that Trump is going to lose.
A realization like that would make it much easier for the RNC to cut its losses and abandon Trump without too much political blowback. Ideally, even Trump wouldn't make too much of a stir about it, so clear is the writing on the wall for him. (This is pretty much exactly how it went down in '96 with Dole. Of course, Dole had a somewhat different relationship with his party.)
Is that day coming? Could we see some sort of split — and if so, when? Those are questions that no one really has the answer to yet. Right now, they're still trying to make this marriage work.