Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush's campaign has looked into whether it is possible to withdraw a pledge to support the eventual nominee if it is Donald Trump, a senior Bush aide says, in a sign of the deep enmity between the two.
The development came to light after Bush and Trump engaged in bitter exchanges at the last Republican debate of the year on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
Last week in New Hampshire, Bush insisted he would not need to withdraw his support for the nominee because he did not believe Trump would win the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
Behind the scenes, top aides have looked into whether Bush would still qualify to be on the ballots in all 50 states because some states require a loyalty pledge in order to be on the ballot.
A driving factor behind the move was Trump's proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, a step that Bush denounced to Trump's face at the debate.
"We received lots of questions following Donald Trump's most recent unhinged proposal so our campaign did due diligence looking into the rules surrounding the pledge," said a senior Bush aide who spoke on condition of anonymity on Thursday.
Still, Bush has not moved to declare he would not support Trump if he wins the nomination fight.
"Governor Bush made explicitly clear on Tuesday his view that Donald Trump would be a chaos president who would be wrong for the country. Voters know where he stands. His focus is on defeating him in the primary," the aide said.
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