And at the Los Angeles Times, "With five-state sweep, Trump closes in on winning nomination without a convention fight":
Donald Trump stacked up five more wins Tuesday, sweeping the East Coast primaries in a decisive showing that moved him significantly closer to capturing the Republican presidential nomination and avoiding a bruising fight at the party's convention this summer.More.
Trump's victories — in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island — were by commanding margins, giving him the overwhelming majority of 172 delegates at stake.
Speaking in New York City, at the gilded office and condominium tower that bears his name, Trump declared the fight for the GOP nomination ended — “I consider myself the presumptive nominee, absolutely” — and said his rivals, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, should immediately stand aside.
“As far as I'm concerned, it's over,” he said.
“We should heal the Republican Party,” continued Trump, who cited his business success as proof he is the only one qualified to do so. “I'm a unifier.”
The Manhattan real estate mogul, who won his home state of New York last week in a landslide, had been expected to do well Tuesday in the heavily urbanized Atlantic corridor.
Even so, and “even if you don't like Donald Trump, it's hard to deny the magnitude of his victories,” said Stuart Rothenberg, an independent campaign analyst.
Trump's dominating performance was important from both practical and psychological standpoints, pushing him closer to the 1,237 delegates needed for a first-ballot victory at the party's July convention and also shaping perceptions of the race to his great advantage.
In exit poll interviews, nearly 7 in 10 Republicans who cast ballots in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut suggested the candidate who gets the most votes — which has been Trump — deserves to win the nomination, even if he falls short in the delegate count.
“There's kind of a growing sense of inevitability,” said Rothenberg, publisher of the nonpartisan Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report. “The trajectory now suggests he will be very close to 1,237 by the end of business on June 7, and probably close enough to sweep up the crumbs he needs to be the nominee.”
California, with 172 delegates — more than any state — will be important in determining whether Trump clinches the nomination or falls just short.
He began the day with 845 pledged delegates and was on track to win at least 105 more. Cruz had 559 and Kasich 148, and picked up only half a dozen more between them, according to nearly complete returns.
The most crucial fight may come in Indiana, which votes next Tuesday...
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