Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has made a surprise closed-door visit to the Republican National Committee after a tumultuous two days on the campaign trail that included a reversal of his pledge to support the party's nominee.
Trump, who also has sought to contain the fallout from his comments on Wednesday supporting punishment for women who have an abortion, said on Twitter afterward he had a "nice meeting" with RNC chairman Reince Preibus but divulged no details.
"Looking forward to bringing the party together," he said. "And it will happen!"
An RNC spokeswoman described the meeting as "a productive conversation about the state of the race" and said it was part of Preibus's regular communications with the party's presidential candidates.
Trump's relationship with the RNC has been contentious at times, and he recently complained the party was not treating him fairly as it prepared for a possible contested convention in July in Cleveland.
On Tuesday, Trump backed away from a loyalty pledge he signed in September promising to support the party's eventual nominee and not to run an independent campaign for the White House.
The RNC pledge has unravelled as Trump's remaining rivals, US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Governor John Kasich, also indicated they were unlikely to observe it if Trump was the nominee.
Barry Bennett, an adviser to the Trump campaign, said Thursday's visit was about Trump helping the RNC raise money.
"The meeting is to help the RNC," he said on MSNBC.
The billionaire businessman was in Washington for an announced gathering of his newly established foreign policy team.
A source who attended said the group discussed threats from Islamic State militants, nuclear proliferation, homeland security assessments and European security levels.
The Trump campaign has been busy trying to dig out from under an avalanche of criticism over his comment that women should face punishment for getting an abortion if the procedure was outlawed, although he quickly reversed his stance.
Trump pulled back from his initial comments within an hour, first issuing a statement that US states should handle abortion issues and later saying doctors who perform abortions are the ones who should be held responsible.
"You have a presidential candidate that clarified the record not once but twice," Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson told CNN, describing the initial comments as a "simple misspeak".
She said Trump was "pro-life with exceptions" and said his statements after the comments in an MSNBC interview were an accurate depiction of his views.
"We shouldn't make this a 24-hour headline when we have things like terrorism going on in the world."
Trump's latest controversy threatened to further erode his standing with women voters, many of whom have been offended by his use of vulgarities and insulting language to describe women during the presidential race.
The abortion flap erupted as Trump campaigned in Wisconsin ahead of the state's critical primary on Tuesday.
An opinion poll released on Wednesday showed Cruz gaining ground and moving ahead of Trump by 10 percentage points in Wisconsin.
Trump's meetings with his new foreign policy advisers follows several controversial statements on national security issues, prompting critics to question his suitability to be commander in chief.
In recent interviews, Trump has declared NATO obsolete, said Saudi Arabia is too dependent on the US, and said Japan and South Korea may need to develop their own nuclear programs because the US security umbrella is too costly to maintain.
He also refused to rule out the potential use of nuclear weapons in Europe or the Middle East to combat IS militants.
