Trump is sending a strong message to the GOP...

[0rganism]

5. by now, i think the GOP is gambling that Trump leaving is better for their survival as a party

Trump is so fucking toxic that if he runs at the top of the ticket, the Democrats are pretty much guaranteed significant down-ticket wins. Trump's GOP will be declared DOA and splinter into 2 or 3 lesser parties more suited to direct representation of their multiple specific forms of bigotry and plutocracy. one of these splinters will still nominally be the Republican party, but it will no longer be able to house its coalition of racists and power brokers that solidified under Reagan.

if Trump gets the nomination yanked out from under him, i expect he'll try to continue into the general as an independent candidate. due to massive institutional incompetence, he won't be on the ballots in half the states. his supporters will desert the GOP, but the oligarchs are gambling that they'll come back in 2-4 years out of a sense of political necessity and Fox News. of course 2016 will be a massive electoral disaster for them, but there is a chance their party can recover from it.