Republican Donald Trump on Sunday refused to rule out mounting an independent bid for president in 2016 should he fail to secure the Republican nomination, despite signing a loyalty pledge two months ago saying he would support the eventual GOP nomination rather than run as a third party candidate.
When asked on ABC's "This Week" whether he would consider running as an independent if Republican opponents try "to take you out," Trump said he "will have to see what happens. I will see what happens. I have to be treated fairly."
The Republican establishment is reportedly planning a "guerrilla campaign" to unite donors from rival camps into a single anti-Trump force to "defeat and destroy" the real estate mogul, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Trump said over the summer that he would absolutely consider a third-party run for president if the Republican National Committee doesn't treat him right. Worried by that possibility, the RNC asked all candidates to sign a declaration of allegiance to the party, a request every candidate complied with, except for Trump. That is, until he received assurance that he would be treated fairly, upon which, he signed the pledge in September, saying "I will be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican party and the conservative principles for which its stands."
However, Trump reminded ABC on Sunday, "When I did this, I said I have to be treated fairly. If I'm treated fairly, I'm fine. All I want to do is [have] a level playing field."
Trump also highlighted the fact that he continues to dominate the polls. "I'm leading every poll by a lot," he said. "It's not even a little bit anymore - it's a lot."
He also renewed his calls for a database on Syrian refugees, as well as an increase in surveillance at mosques, particularly in New York City, following the terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead, reported CNN.
"There should be a lot of systems beyond databases. We should have a lot of systems. I do want a database for those people coming in. I want surveillance if we have to. I want surveillance of certain mosques, OK?" Trump said.
As for the controversial interrogation tactic known as waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique widely considered to be a form of torture, Trumps says he would reinstate it for terrorism suspects, noting that it "is peanuts compared to what they're doing to us."
"We have to be strong. You know, they don't use waterboarding over there; they use chopping off people's heads," Trump told ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "They use drowning people. I don't know if you've seen with the cages, where they put people in cages and they drown them in the ocean and they lift out the cage. And we're talking about waterboarding."
And despite his support for Second Amendment rights, Trump told ABC he would also support a law banning people on terror watch lists from buying guns, people he called "enemies of the state."
