Is Trump Enough To Make Bloomberg Change His Mind?

There you have it. Now that both Ted Cruz and John Kasich have dropped out of the GOP presidential race, Donald Trump is the country's Republican nominee. And that fact has scared some people — liberals and conservatives alike — so much that they're wondering what other options they might have. Will Speaker of the House Paul Ryan jump in to save them? Can the GOP elite bring Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush Back? Or can former Republican and current independent Michael Bloomberg still run for president?

Unfortunately for those who are wishing for Bloomberg to give Trump a run for his money, whether through a Republican run or a third-party candidacy, it's too late for him to do so. The shortest presidential campaign that ended in a successful party nomination was Ronald Reagan's at 357 days. There are currently less than 75 days until the Republican National Convention and 81 until the Democratic National Convention. While Bloomberg can certainly consider running, it would be unprecedented — and most likely unsuccessful, given that the majority of primaries and caucuses across the country have already concluded — not to mention that he said in early March he wouldn't bother since data showed he wouldn't be able to win.

Two months ago, Bloomberg wrote an article responding to calls for him to enact a third-party campaign, stating that while he sees the extremism of presidential candidates growing worse and that he shares the concerns so many Americans have, he wouldn't take the risk because of the Electoral College process:

The fact is, even if I were to receive the most popular votes and the most electoral votes, victory would be highly unlikely, because most members of Congress would vote for their party's nominee. Party loyalists in Congress — not the American people or the Electoral College — would determine the next president.

But he expanded in the letter to explain that that's not the only reason he wouldn't run — he also expressed fear that a third-party Bloomberg campaign could ultimately result in the election of Trump or Cruz. "That is not a risk I can take in good conscience," he said, before going on to say Trump has run the most divisive campaign and appeals only to "our worst impulses."

So while Bloomberg likely wishes a campaign of his could have stopped Trump, it's something he would have had to be considering at least a year ago — but Trump's rise in the GOP field is something no one saw coming.