PALM BEACH, Florida — Donald Trump took a victory lap on Tuesday after a resounding win in Florida, and victories in North Carolina and Illinois.
With Missouri too close to call at the time of his speech, the only state Mr. Trump definitely lost Tuesday was Ohio — and that to home state Gov. John Kasich.
Early exit polling by CNN showed bipartisan concern about both the economy and access to jobs. In Illinois and North Carolina, about 7 in 10 Republican voters said they were very worried about the nation’s economic future.
Mr. Trump addressed those concerns at the top of his victory speech Tuesday night.
“Someday in the not to distance future, Apple and all of these great companies will be making their product in the U.S. and we’re not going to be losing our companies,” Mr. Trump said at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach. “Politicians can’t get along, they can’t make a deal.”
Mr. Trump said if he were to win the White House, he could make a deal within 10 minutes that would bring back American companies that have relocated overseas to avoid U.S. corporate taxes.
“We had a fantastic evening, never thought this could happen – to win the states that we’ve won and by the margins, is incredible,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re going to have great victories for our country.”
Mr. Trump congratulated Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, whom he had been ridiculing as “Little Marco,” saying he ran a “tough campaign.” Mr. Rubio suspended his campaign Tuesday night after a poor showing in his home state. Mr. Trump failed to mention — even to take a shot at — Mr. Kasich or Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, his last-remaining rivals.
Anti-Trump groups and super PACs ran about $40 million in negative ads, with $16 million dumped in Florida alone — money that had little to no impact at the polls.
Mr. Trump described sitting at a golf tournament at Trump National Doral golf course near Miami a few weeks ago, and having the television on.
“Nobody in ever in the history of politics received this level of negative advertising,” Mr. Trump said. “And it came in waves, one after another.”
Mr. Trump said he had to steer donors and golfers away from the television screen as they passed because he didn’t want them watching the “mostly false, vicious, horrible,” advertisements against him.
In terms of moving forward, Mr. Trump said he thinks he can get the needed 50-plus percent of the vote needed to clinch the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright, especially now that the field is winnowing.
“I was watching the news a while ago, one of the commentators, said ’but Donald Trump doesn’t get over 50 percent,’ I have to explain to these people … they don’t understand basic physics, basic mathematics, we have four people in the race,” Mr. Trump explained. “Someday they’re going to understand, when we take it all they’ll understand.”
• Kelly Riddell can be reached at kriddell@washingtontimes.com.
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