This week, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, had a watershed moment. That moment came Tuesday night, when he decisively won Indiana over Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and Cruz responded by dropping out of the race. From the looks of it, Trump was surprised by Cruz’s announcement.
After hearing about Cruz’s decision to suspend his campaign, Trump described him as “one hell of a competitor” and said he “has a great future.” In his speech, Trump expressed gratitude to his supporters and seemed magnanimous toward his rivals. In tiny, he acted like a president.
With his landslide victory in Indiana, Trump has amassed 1,047 of the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination. The RNC finally gave Trump the nod Tuesday night when chairman Reince Priebus tweeted, “@realDonaldTrump will be the presumptive @GOP nominee, we all need to unite & focus on defeating @HillaryClinton #NeverClinton.”
The general election has begun for Republicans.
Democrats, surprisingly, aren’t ready yet. As surreal as it was to see Trump on the Republican side, the Democratic nomination process took much longer than anyone (especially former Sen. Hillary Clinton) could have imagined. Even Bernie Sanders admits his movement exceeded expectations.
Sanders won a surprising victory in Indiana, taking 53 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 47 percent (97 percent reported). When President Barack Obama goaded Clinton at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night by saying that Clinton’s campaign slogan was “Get up the hill,” he may not have realized how steep and long that hill would become.
Clinton isn’t done with his challenging work yet.
Sanders pledged Tuesday night to stay in the race and take it all the way to the contentious Democratic convention. How ironic it would be to see Republicans united at their convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in July; and then Democrats in Philadelphia a week later, still fighting over who their nominee should be.
By becoming the presumptive nominee, Trump has gained time to tardy down—to organize, integrate, strategize, and build an organization to win a general election. There is no need to rush, there is plenty of time.
In the meantime, Trump has the added benefit of watching Clinton and Sanders continue to criticize each other.
Trump’s remaining state primaries will generate excitement and give him the opportunity to treat them as stops in the general election. He will continue to attract media attention, seal his nomination, and make the remaining state primaries part of the process, as they should be.
With Cruz out of the race, Trump doesn’t have to mention Kasich, who could hold out until the convention or suspend his campaign. In any case, it doesn’t matter to Trump. Now he can start reaching out to all voters, conservatives, moderates, independents, Republicans — even Democrats.
While many will tout the latest poll (a CNN/ORC poll conducted April 28-May 1) that shows Clinton leading Trump 54 percent to 41 percent as a sure bet for his defeat in the fall, they are wrong. Clinton is a very simple bet to beat, especially by Trump.
Clinton has been a politician for years and is part of the Democratic Party establishment (just ask Sanders).
Clinton cannot be trusted. “I call her corrupt Hillary,” Trump said. Clinton herself said last Tuesday night that she was ready to “play the woman card.” When she does, she will remind voters that her experience is that of a professional politician—that she is no different from the rest of the establishment—of both parties. She is a professional politician, and therefore she cannot do anything.
While Wednesday’s headlines spoke of Trump as the modern GOP leader, he appears to have no interest in leading the party. We’ve had several recent GOP candidates lead the party — and lose the general election. Trump is interested in leading the nation — for all Americans. He’s a Republican, but his goal is to win the presidency — not to run the party.
When Trump says “America first,” he means “America first”—above party, above other nations, and that’s why voters love him. Americans of both parties are tired of partisan politics, tired of being last. They want someone who will defend them. That’s what they found in Donald Trump.
