Shortly after Donald Trump triumphantly won the Indiana Republican primary on Tuesday night, after it became clear that he would be the party's presidential nominee, and after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) announced that he would suspend his campaign, Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, sent a tweet.
Priebus' job is to unify the party. And in urging fellow Republicans to unite behind Trump, he was essentially declaring an end to a bitter, odd, often comically acidic primary fight.
But he's gonna need more than a tweet to stop the party from falling apart.
Before Trump took to the mics, many of the top conservative voices in the press, some of the party's top operatives, and even elected officials were reaffirming that they simply won't support the real estate tycoon. One even burned his Republican registration card.
Republican strategist Mary Matalin also said she had left the GOP and registered as a Libertarian on Thursday after Trump became the presumptive nominee. She insisted that leaving the party was a "coincidence" and said she might still vote for Trump.
Certainly, there is plenty of time between now and November for feelings to change, for bruised egos to heal, for Republicans to talk themselves into supporting Trump. But step back and take stock of what took place on Tuesday. A party finally determined who its presumptive nominee would be -- and a good chunk of its commentariat, many of its operatives and even some of its lawmakers collectively hurled.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
This story has been updated to include comment from Republican strategist Mary Matalin.