(CN) - It was supposed to clarify the rules by which the GOP will choose its presidential nominee three months from now, when 2,472 delegates gather in Cleveland for the party's nominating convention.
Instead, the just-concluded meeting of 168 members of the Republican National Committee and top party functionaries at a beachside resort south of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. only seemed to heighten tensions between the GOP and Donald Trump, its frontrunning candidate.
In the process it virtually guaranteed the nomination will come down to which candidate the three still in the race or an as-yet unknown "white knight" has the best "boiler room" operation behind the scenes and emerges victorious from a messy, fractious fight for delegate votes on the convention floor.
All this became clear Friday night, when during a speech to committee members, GOP Chairman Reince Priebus said it doesn't matter how close a candidate comes in the primaries and caucuses, if he doesn't come to the July convention with the necessary 1,237 delegates to claim the nomination outright, he's going to have to fight for it.
"If we don't abide by the majority, we don't honor one of the bedrock values of American government," Priebus said.
"Majority rule is as American as apple pie or [baseball's] Opening Day," he added.
Trump is the only candidate in the race for the Republican nomination who continues to have any chance of winning enough delegates to secure the nomination. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is second in terms of delegates, was mathematically eliminated from a first-ballot victory at the convention by his poor showing in the New York State primary last week.
However, many in the party's establishment are loath to have the bellicose Trump be the GOP's standard-bearer in the November elections. They are pinning their hopes on Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich doing well enough in the remaining contests to deny the billionaire real estate developer and reality TV star the delegates he needs.
If they do, then as Priebus made clear, anything can happen something Trump knows only too well.
While Trump has trounced his opponents in contest after contest, Cruz has proven adept at besting the frontrunner time and again when it comes to preparing for a contested nomination process. He's done this by ensuring that delegates who'll support him on a second ballot regardless of whether they're pledged to somebody else on the first are seated at the GOP convention.
Speaking Friday night in Delaware, one of five states that hold Republican primaries on Tuesday, Trump blasted his party's leadership, dismissively referring to them as "bosses," and the delegate selection methods they espouse.
"The system is all rigged," he said at a rally in Harrington, Del., where attendees were happy to hear their candidate fired up.
"That's why we have to win big. That's why on Tuesday, everyone has to go out and vote. We have to win big because the system is rigged," he said.
In recent days Trump has been particularly upset by the situation in Pennsylvania, another of the states voting Tuesday, where delegate selection is about as chaotic as a Jackson Pollock painting.
In all, 71 delegates are at stake in the Republican contest. But the winner of the primary will receive only 17 pledged delegates.