Donald Trump crowed to his supporters from Trump Tower after easily winning five Republican presidential primaries Tuesday night, saying, “as far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”
Touting the 60 percent of the vote he earned in Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland, Trump made the case that Tuesday’s victories essentially rendered Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) irrelevant to the 2016 race.
“I use the analogy of the boxer,” Trump said. “When the boxer knocks out the other boxer, you don’t have to wait around for a decision. That is what happened tonight. That is what happened last week in New York, that is really what is happening throughout. We have millions more votes, millions more than Cruz, millions more votes than Kasich.”
“I consider myself the presumptive nominee, absolutely,” Trump said later in response to a question from a reporter.
The New York real estate mogul said the party was coalescing around him, telling reporters to ask Ben Carson and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who both endorsed him after dropping out of the 2016 race. Christie and his wife, Mary Pat, stood directly behind Trump at the rally-cum-press conference.
The GOP frontrunner argued that the anti-Trump alliance Kasich and Cruz forged in Indiana, New Mexico and Oregon was ill-advised, noting that Kasich urged Indiana voters to support him despite the truce.
“I think that Governor Kasich and Senator Cruz have really, really hurt themselves with a faulty deal that was defaulted on before they even started,” Trump said.
“What it is is politicians: all talk, no action,” he added. “They can’t get it done and they certainly can’t straighten out our country.”
Trump also took pot shots at Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, who won primary contests in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut and Maryland on Tuesday, saying “the only card she has is the woman card.”
“Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote,” Trump told reporters.
This post has been updated.
