Trump fears delegate chaos will plague his 2024 presidential bid

With his 2024 presidential bid in full swing, Donald Trump is working overtime locking down delegates at the state level to avoid the chaos that ensued during his first presidential bid in 2016.

According to a report from Politico's Alex Isenstadt, the former president is working the phones to get pledges of loyalty long before some of his rivals for the nomination have even officially launched their campaigns.

Of concern to Trump is a repeat of 2016 when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) attempted to peel away delegates from the now-former president during his first bid for office.

"Trump has told advisers he remembers well what happened in Louisiana during the 2016 race. After winning the primary, he was outmaneuvered by his chief rival, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who understood that it was the state’s delegates that mattered at the Republican National Convention," the report states before adding, "Cruz ended up performing better than expected in the state’s delegate fight. And after the imbroglio, Trump brought in veteran Republican strategist Paul Manafort as part of an effort to bring a level of professionalism to his delegate operation."

ALSO IN THE NEWS: 'More dangerous than ever' Trump is getting a free pass again: conservative

Trump later lamented, “I won the primary but lost the delegates,” and has since expressed his concerns to Louisiana's Republican leaders.

"Now engaged in another delegate battle, Trump has been aggressively courting party leaders — in Louisiana and elsewhere — who are expected to be delegates at the party’s 2024 convention in Milwaukee. He’s been dining with them at Mar-a-Lago, chatting them up at party events and offering them endorsements. The effort will intensify in the weeks to come, with Trump expected to make appearances at state party events that will be filled with future national delegates," Politico is reporting.

According to Mike Brown, the chair of the Kansas Republican Party, the former president's efforts seem to be paying off.

“They have done quite a bit in the way of staying in touch,” he stated. “When it comes to the other campaigns, candidly, I haven’t heard from anybody.”

You can read more here.