Trump campaign moves to stave off mayhem at 2020 convention

President Donald Trump is tightening his iron grip on the Republican Party, launching an elaborate effort to stamp out any vestiges of GOP opposition that might embarrass him at the 2020 Republican convention.

The president’s reelection campaign is intent on avoiding the kind of circus that unfolded on the convention floor in 2016, when Never Trump Republicans loudly protested his nomination before a national TV audience ... it’s meant to ensure that delegates at next year’s convention in Charlotte, N.C., are presidential loyalists.

As the presidential campaign season kicks off, Trump’s Republican detractors concede that derailing his renomination is exceedingly unlikely. Polls consistently show his approval rating exceeds 80 percent among Republican voters.

Yet GOP resistance to Trump has simmered in recent weeks, with senior party figures sounding off about the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the president’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria.

As they begin preparing for Charlotte, Trump aides are studying past conventions that became sidetracked by rival forces.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/07/trump-reelection-campaign-2020-republican-convention-1083176