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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump listens as Sam Clovis speaks at a press conference at the Grand River Center on August 25, 2015 in Dubuque, Iowa. | Getty Trump adviser threatens to leave GOP 'forever'

An adviser to Donald Trump on Friday threatened to leave the Republican Party "forever" if the Republican National Committee decides to alter its standing convention rules in an effort to stop Trump from becoming the nominee.

"I will tell you this," said Sam Clovis, a national policy adviser and Trump's Iowa campaign co-chair, in an interview with CNN's "New Day. "If the Republican Party comes into that convention and jimmies with the rules and takes away the will of the people, the will of the Republicans and the Democrats and the independents who have voted for Mr. Trump, I will take off my credentials, I will leave the floor of that convention, and I will leave the Republican Party forever."

The comments follow a meeting Thursday in Washington of anti-Trump forces in which they discussed how to stop the candidate from earning a majority of the delegates necessary to clinch the nomination. Following the gathering, the conservative leaders and activists called for a "unity ticket" to prevent Trump from becoming the party's standard-bearer in the fall. On Thursday night, House Speaker Paul Ryan met with Republican donors in Florida to discuss the political landscape writ large, but the focus of the gathering was not necessarily on how to stop Trump.