The leaders of the Republican Party are panicking about Donald Trump’s surge in the polls, because he’s giving away the game with his too-overt xenophobia and bigotry. So tonight Reince Priebus got on the phone with Trump to beg him to shut the hell up before he damages the GOP brand any further.

The head of the Republican National Committee, responding to demands from increasingly worried party leaders, spent nearly an hour Wednesday on the phone with Donald Trump, urging the presidential candidate to tone down his inflammatory comments about immigration that have infuriated a key election constituency.

The call from Chairman Reince Priebus, described by donors and consultants briefed on the conversation and confirmed by the RNC, underscores the extent to which Trump has gone from an embarrassment to a cause for serious alarm among top Republicans in Washington and nationwide.

But there is little they can do about the mogul and reality-television star, who draws sustenance from controversy and attention. And some fear that, with assistance from Democrats, Trump could become the face of the GOP.

People who’ve been paying attention to the degradation of the conservative movement already know that bigots like Donald Trump have been the face of the GOP for years. Priebus can beg him to tone it down, but it’s a sham, a facade, intended to cover up what’s really been going on in the Republican Party for a long, long time.