I don't think anything Trump says or does throughout the rest of the campaign could harm the GOP more than if the nomination was stolen from him and handed to someone else.
I disagree entirely.
The politico article brings up an important question toward the end- what does the RNC do, if the bound trump delegates remain bound, but during the roll call vote, some bound Trump delegates submit votes for Cruz, or Kasich, or someone else, or abstains, and the state chair announces the vote that way. Does the convention chair count the votes as cast, ignoring the bounding? Does the convention chair count the improperly cast votes as abstentions? Or does the convention chair outright say the votes were cast improperly and that they should have been cast as "(insert bound counts here)" and that's what they will be counted as? National GOP rules, which are supposed to take priority over state GOP rules and state law, point toward the third scenario, but it's impossible to know what the convention chair will actually do on stage.
Also, regardless of what is changed and not changed regarding bonding, Cruz can exercise his right to call for a nomination speech for himself before the vote, which he has a result of winning 8 states as long as he doesn't release his delegates. Even if it was quixotic and had no shot of holding Trump below 1237, it would look bad to just see the 2nd nomination speech being made. In 2012, there was only a nomination speech for Romney - nothing for Paul. Same with 2008 and McCain.
Read the Rules.
The Rules Committee can change these or any rules in their pre-Convention meeting by majority vote. If 25% of the Rules Committee (112 members with a man and woman from each state/D.C./territory, so 28 people) sign a proposed rule that was shot down or they disagree with, it can be presented to the Convention as a minority report that the Convention can vote on.
