Donald Trump declares he is 'presumptive nominee' after sweeping victories

Daniel Bates27 April 2016

Donald Trump today stormed to victory in five US presidential primaries and declared himself the “presumptive nominee” for the Republicans.

The billionaire property tycoon won more than 50 per cent of the vote in all of the north-eastern states that voted yesterday and said: “As far as I’m concerned it’s over.”

Setting the scene for what is likely to be a bruising battle with Hillary Clinton for the White House, he turned his fire on his Democratic rival — who won four out of five states — accusing her of playing “the women’s card”.

Mr Trump called her a “flawed candidate” who would make a “horrible president”.

He said: “I’ll do far more for women than Hillary will ever do, including protecting our country.”

In his most stinging rebuke he said: “If Hillary Clinton were a man I don’t think she would get five per cent of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is the women’s card. And the beautiful thing is that women don’t like her.”

At a rally in Philadelphia earlier Mrs Clinton appeared to pre-empt what Mr Trump was going to say, telling the crowd: “The other day, Donald Trump accused me of playing the ‘woman card’.

"Well if playing the woman card means fighting for women’s health care and paid family leave, then deal me in.”

Mrs Clinton’s Left-wing rival Bernie Sanders insisted he would fight on despite crushing defeats which have left him trailing in the nomination race.

But the night was Mr Trump’s — his thumping wins came after rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich formally ganged up on him to try to stop him getting the nomination. The margins were staggering and covered a diverse range of states, reaffirming Mr Trump’s nationwide appeal after convincing victories in the south and the midwest.

The biggest win was in Rhode Island where he got 64 per cent of the vote compared with 20 per cent for Mr Kasich and 16 per cent for Mr Cruz.

In Delaware Mr Trump got 61 per cent and was above 50 per cent in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. He appeared on the stage at Trump Tower in New York with a big grin on his face to Start It Up by the Rolling Stones.

Asked if he considers himself the Republican nominee, Mr Trump said: “I consider myself the presumptive nominee, absolutely. Senator Cruz and Gov Kasich should get out of the race.”

Mr Trump said that he wanted to “heal the Republican party” and bring it together. He said: “This is a far bigger win than we expected... that’s called a massive landslide.”

Mr Trump is the only person capable of securing the Republican nomination before the party convention in July. Yet with 950 delegates now, he could still fall short of the 1,237 he needs. He appeared to refuse to tone down his style to appear more “presidential”.

“You have a football team and you get to the Super Bowl you don’t change your quarterback.” Mrs Clinton walloped Mr Sanders in Maryland with 63 per cent to his 33 per cent. She also scored over 50 per cent in Connecticut, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Mr Sanders took Rhode Island with 55 per cent to 43 per cent. He said in a statement he was “in this race until the last vote has been cast”. According to an AP count, Mrs Clinton now has 2,141 delegates to Sanders’ 1,321 — a candidate needs 2,383 to win the Democratic nomination.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in