Clinton, however, suffered an upset defeat at the hands of Bernie Sanders in Indiana but the outcome was unlikely to slow the 68-year-old former secretary of state’s march to the Democratic nomination.
By becoming the presumptive nominee, Trump, who joined politics only last year, has scripted history as he is now on course to be the first standard-bearer of the party since Dwight D Eisenhower, a five-star general and the commander of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, who had not served in an elected office.
“I am honoured to be the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party. It is time to unite our party and defeat Hillary Clinton,” 69-year-old real estate tycoon said in a message to his supporters after winning the Indiana primary.
Trump won 51 of the 57 delegates at stake in Indiana and now has 1,047 delegates in his kitty.
He is just short of 190 delegates, which he is expected to bag as the primary season moves into its last lap now and his main competitor Senator Cruz is out of the race. Cruz, who has engaged in a bitter and nasty war of words with Trump, announced his decision to drop out of the race.
Trump, however, still faces opposition from Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has less than 200 delegates. Kasich has made it clear that he is not dropping out of the race. After Trump’s win, the Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Priebus said that Trump would be the presumptive nominee and asked his party to rally behind him to defeat Clinton in the November polls.
“We are going to make America great again,” a confident Trump told supporters at his campaign headquarters in New York as he announced to take on Clinton. “We are going after Hillary Clinton. She will not be a great president. She will not be a good president. She would be a poor president. She does not understand trade,” Trump said, giving a brief glimpse of his campaign against the likely Democratic presidential nominee.
Talking about Cruz, Trump described him as a tough competitor and appreciated his decision to withdraw from the race. “I want to congratulate Ted Cruz. He is a tough smart competitor,” he said of the Texas Senator with whom he had a bitter exchange of words hours before the result of the Indiana primary.
“Ted Cruz is one hell of a competitor. He is an amazing guy. He has got an amazing future. He is one tough competitor,” Trump said.
In his speech that lasted for a little less than 20 minutes, Trump talked about uniting the party and focusing on trade and economic issues. “We are going to bring back our jobs,” Trump said as he warned the US companies with “consequences” if they moved out of the country.
Trump, a New York-based real estate mogul who made money from constructing buildings and a popular reality television star, joined politics about 10 months ago with political pundits giving him not much of a chance to make it this far. With 98 per cent of the votes counted, Trump won 53.3 per cent, Cruz got 36.6 per cent while Kasich managed only 7.6 per cent. Trump won all 51 delegates at stake.
On the Democratic side, with 98 per cent of the votes counted, Sanders eked out a win after getting 52.5 per cent votes to Clinton’s 47.5 per cent. While Sanders won 43 delegates, Clinton got 37.
“Tonight, I am sorry to say it appears that the path has been foreclosed...the voters chose another path. So with a heavy heart, with boundless optimism for the future of the nation, we are suspending our campaign. I am not suspending our fight to liberty...our movement would continue,” Cruz said.
Standing by his side were his vice presidential partner Carly Fiorina, his parents, wife and children.
John Kasich, last Republican Trump rival, ‘quits race’
Ohio Governor John Kasich has dropped out of the presidential race after struggling to gain traction against Republican front-runner Donald Trump, US media report. Kasich did not have a path to secure the nomination outright, but pledged to lobby for his candidacy during the Republican convention in July.
Trump holds a commanding lead and is closing in on the nomination. Despite being a popular governor, Kasich only won his home state.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz dropped out of the race on Tuesday after losing to Trump in the Indiana primary. Kasich cancelled events in Washington and announced an evening event in his home state on Wednesday. Earlier on Wednesday, he released a Star-Wars themed advert describing himself as the “only hope” against Donald Trump. Blocking from wining the nomination outright, Kasich and Cruz had hoped to force a contested convention, in which party officials, not voters, choose for the nominee.