Jindal: ‘GOP establishment is done for’ after Trump

Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) on Wednesday said GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s success is a death knell for establishment Republicans.

“The GOP establishment is done for,” he told host Chuck Todd on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press.” “This race shows that.

{mosads}“Voters are angry and frustrated and, in some part, the Republican Party deserves some of that frustration. Donald Trump should serve as a wake-up call.”

Jindal also argued that a brokered convention preventing Trump from becoming the Republican standard-bearer would only further discredit party leadership.

“When huge chunks of your base are telling you something, you have to listen to them,” said Jindal, who suspended his own White House bid last year. “Let’s let the voters speak.

“It makes for a great fiction novel,” he added of a brokered convention in Cleveland next July. “The reality is, you can do the math. He has done very, very well. It is exactly what is wrong with the GOP establishment and it ignoring the will of the voters.”

Jindal added that he plans to support Trump if he becomes the GOP nominee, but is unenthusiastic about that scenario.

“If it comes down to Donald Trump and [Democratic presidential front-runner] Hillary Clinton, I would certainly support Donald Trump as the Republican nominee,” he said.

“I didn’t wake this morning a big fan of Donald Trump,” the Louisiana governor added. “I hope it’s not him [as] he’s not my favorite. I think Donald Trump’s wrong on a whole host of issues.”

Trump on Tuesday won five out of six GOP presidential primary voting contests, further cementing his status as the GOP presidential standard-bearer.

Establishment Republicans are now targeting the Republican National Convention later this summer as the last hope of halting the billionaire’s momentum.

Critics worry that Trump’s lack of political experience and bombastic rhetoric may become liabilities during a general presidential election next November. He nonetheless leads the Republican presidential field by more than 14 points, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.