The 69-year-old billionaire extended his lead in the delegates who will officially choose the Republican nominee at the party’s convention in July.
“For weeks, the stop Trump, dump Trump movement has tried to puncture” his rise, James Morone, a political science professor at Brown University, told AFP.
“Today’s results overwhelmingly tell you it’s not working.”
– ‘Very dumb!’ –
Trump also offered a preview Wednesday of what a Trump-Clinton matchup would look like, repeating on CNN his assertion that Clinton is “playing the woman card left and right.”
But at her victory party in Philadelphia, Clinton told supporters that “if fighting for women’s health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the woman’s card, then deal me in.”
Trump’s triumph comes after Cruz and Kasich teamed up to try and to block the Republican frontrunners path in several upcoming primaries.
Trump slammed the alliance as “pathetic” and ineffective.
“This joke of a deal is falling apart, not being honored and almost dead,” Trump said on Twitter. “Very dumb!”
A key test will come in Indiana which votes May 3. Kasich has agreed not to campaign there, giving Cruz an opportunity to compete head to head with Trump for the state’s 57 delegates.
Trump now stands at 988 delegates, according to CNN’s running estimate. Cruz was a distant second with 568, while Kasich increased his numbers only slightly, to 152.
But the convoluted system of delegate allocation in some states means Trump is still a considerable way from reaching 1,237.
Out of Pennsylvania’s 71 delegates, only 17 are pledged to the winner, Trump. The remaining 54 are essentially wildcards, heading unpledged to the convention where they are free to vote as they see fit.
If Trump falls short of outright victory, he runs the risk that his delegates, most of whom are bound to vote for him in only the first round, will desert him in subsequent rounds.
Cruz and Kasich have openly said they are counting on a contested convention, where they have a shot at wooing enough delegates to snatch the nomination.
Trump recently faced criticism when a top aide revealed the candidate was preparing to reshape his image, but Trump insisted Wednesday morning he was not undergoing a makeover.
“I’m not going to be changing. I’m presidential anyway,” he told CNN.
About The Author
