Donald Trump’s attack, widely panned as racist, on an Indiana-born judge and his refusal to recant have the mogul’s Republican detractors amplifying calls to oust him at next month’s GOP national convention.

A re-energized anti-Trump chorus — joined Wednesday by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt is pleading with Republican activists to reject Trump when the party meets in Cleveland to pick its presidential nominee. They were buoyed Tuesday when a string of Republican leaders — from Govs. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Brian Sandoval of Nevada to Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois and Jeff Flake of Arizona — distanced themselves from Trump.


For now, though, it’s all just noise.

There’s no coordinated effort to mobilize a Trump overthrow, according to GOP operatives and delegates involved in convention organization. Any move to do so would require donors to bankroll it and operatives to whip the conventions 2,472 delegates to sideline Trump during important procedural fights that begin in five weeks.

“I haven’t heard of anything,” said Saul Anuzis, a former top adviser to Ted Cruz, who spent the spring packing the convention with anti-Trump delegates before his candidate quit the race last month. Anuzis on Tuesday tweeted a link to a new book by longtime Republican National Committee member Curly Haugland titled “Unbound” and argues that convention delegates are free to vote for the candidate of their choice, not according to the party’s binding rules. But Anuzis said he and other ex-Cruz staffers haven’t been involved in any concrete push to achieve that goal.

He and Ken Cuccinelli, another top Cruz adviser who will attend the convention as a Virginia delegate, have emphasized that they’re not behind any efforts to block Trump from the nomination.

“While we've heard the rumblings of doubt/discontent more so in the past few days, at this point we haven't shifted focus from what we hope to accomplish at the Convention,” said Cuccinelli spokeswoman Mallory Rascher in an email. “Ken is still watching to see how things play out in the months leading up to November.”

What’s changed in recent days, though, according to those agitating for a Trump ouster, is a sharp uptick in conversations and questions about what it would take to sideline Trump. Trump’s decision to label an American judge “Mexican” to cast doubt on the fairness of his rulings has been labeled naked racism by many Republicans — even House Speaker Paul Ryan — and has stoked fears that Trump will decimate down-ballot Republicans in November. Many Republicans, they say, who once dismissed the anti-Trump fight as the fever dreams of a dying “#NeverTrump” movement, have warmed to the idea.

“When the media is debating whether or not our nominee is a racist, we are losing,” said Colorado Republican Guy Short, one of 112 convention delegates who will sit on the Rules Committee, a panel that has the power to free delegates required to vote for Trump. “I received an email just this morning from a fellow delegate pleading for a rules change to stop Trump and proposing specific rules to do just that.”

Other conservatives described a similar outpouring from convention delegates.

“I’ve had delegates from more than a half-dozen states contact me about removing themselves from Trump Cult and its cancerous effects,” said Steve Deace, an influential Iowa radio host who backed Ted Cruz in the primary and has continued to agitate against Trump.

But there’s no perceptible sign yet of a concerted effort to line up the votes it would take to enact rule changes to alter the outcome of the convention, where the majority of delegates are bound to Trump.

“The senator honestly has not heard of any such campaign,” said a spokesman for Sen. Mike Lee, who backed Cruz in the primary and is one of Utah’s two members of the convention Rules Committee.

Katie Packer, who founded the anti-Trump Our Principles PAC, said she’s not involved in any efforts to block Trump at the convention. “My hope was to stop him from winning the nomination,” she said, adding, “[W]e are not currently active in those efforts which would require unbinding of delegates.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The RNC declined to weigh in on efforts to stop Trump at the convention, noting that delegates — not the RNC — ultimately set the convention rules. A spokeswoman, Lindsay Walters, noted that: “The rules that will govern the 2016 convention will be created by the Convention Rules Committee and approved by the delegation. The RNC does not set the rules.”

Erick Erickson, a conservative editor of The Insurgent and a longtime anti-Trump agitator, said the reason for the lack of coordination is that the anti-Trump movement is in wait-and-see mode. He says he’s been on calls with GOP donors — who he declined to name — willing to set aside money for an anti-Trump whipping operation at the convention. But first, they’re giving Trump a narrow window to straighten out his candidacy.

“They’re not sure that it’s possible, but they’re starting to examine it,” he said

Erickson estimated that Trump has 10 days to rebuild the confidence of Republican leaders or risk more defections and calls for a new nominee.

“Trump can go for the next week or two and show that he can assert self-discipline … If Trump can go a couple of weeks and be calm, then yeah, you’re going to have these guys not willing to rock the boat,” Erickson said. “If he can’t make it for the next week-and-a-half or so without continuing to do what he’s doing, then you’re going to have people really serious about doing this.”

“These next two weeks,” he added, “are kind of do or die for him.”