The Trump Doctrine

From The Last English Prince:

Super Tuesday, April 26th! What a historic event! Five states, all counties in five states. The sweep across the political landscape was a definite shock-and-awe. 

Mr. Trump is correct when he declared himself the presumptive presidential nominee last night. The math does not lie. Americans are speaking with unified voice. The GOP can go to hell or join the party. 

Unfortunately, Mr. Trump’s remarks and press conference left much to be desired last night because of press corps ineptitude. At least one member of the press corps left their audio in live status, thus creating a subtle cacophony of background noise which continued along for several minutes into the question and answer session. This was noted at both CNN, and also when I dashed back to my computer to view a live stream. 

I was unable to discern the direct nature of how one question was presented. But Mr. Trump was firm in his response. No. There is not a “Trump Doctrine”. He spoke again of the need for flexibility in the policy arena which recognizes the changing tides of history.  

So there is not a “doctrine”. The presidential candidate is very cunning. He is intuitive in his ability to grasp things. Proclaiming a “Trump Doctrine” would have allowed the press corps endless hours to pontificate, spin, and imagine the nature of such a magical policy creature. 

That being said, I do believe there is a Trump Doctrine. I have carefully listened to Mr. Trump for many months. Everything he conveys to the American people has a basis in this one cogent sentence: 

America’s money stays in American pockets. 

Sound too simple? Sometimes genius is very simple. Consider the sentence again and plug it into every issue that Mr. Trump hammers away at day after day.

• He will bring back plants and manufacturing jobs 
• NATO is obsolete. We pay the lion’s share for this 28 member alliance. These nations need not only to pay their fair share but also reimburse us to even out the books. 
• Repeal Obamacare and replace it with something superior 
• Do away with Common Core. Let local communities manage their education systems. 
• Build a wall. Last night a reporter asked Donald Trump about immigration. He shot back, “You know how I feel about this.” 
• Partner with world class businessmen to craft trade deals. 

Job creation… modernizing NATO’s financials… providing truly affordable healthcare… clipping Federal Branch intrusion and wingspan into local communities…pushing back against the illegal throngs which are “pouring across our borders”… and marginalizing inept and corrupt politicians’ involvement in the granular details of our trade deals mean one thing: 

America’s Money

Stays

In American Pockets

There you have it. The Trump Doctrine. 

Donald Trump: He wants our future generations to be blessed. 

Do you love your children? Vote for Donald Trump.

Humpday Blues

Willie Dixon

Nervous

Spoonful

Seventh Son

My Babe

Donald Trump's Foreign Policy Speech

Given today.

My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people, and American security, above all else. That will be the foundation of every decision that I will make. 

America First will be the major and overriding theme of my administration. But to chart our path forward, we must first briefly look back.

We have a lot to be proud of. In the 1940s we saved the world....

Today, I want to identify five main weaknesses in our foreign policy. 

First, Our Resources Are Overextended

Secondly, our allies are not paying their fair share.

Thirdly, our friends are beginning to think they can’t depend on us.

Fourth, our rivals no longer respect us.

Finally, America no longer has a clear understanding of our foreign policy goals.

GO READ THE TRANSCRIPT.

The "We Don't Elect a King" Argument

Many die-hard GOP cocksuckers have been using the argument that Trump is "dictatorial", that he is a Authoritarian,  that we don't elect a King, we elect a President.

Damn right we elect a President.

And a President has to be an idea guy, a consensus builder, and a communicator. All of which Trump has shown himself to be over the years he has built his fortune.

Of course, Donald Trump is an Owner of a Business.  Many business owners do get away with being dictatorial within their own businesses

But Donald Trump does not run a Taco Stand, or even a chain of Taco Stands. If he did, he could have opened up shop, and set up everything to run exactly the way he wants it to run.

But like I said, he doesn't run that kind of business.

He runs a business that builds very large buildings on very large pieces of property, in nations around the world.

The business of being a Developer requires that one be a consensus builder. Indeed one must be the Conductor of a delicate balancing act that requires the cooperation of City, State and Federal governments, Unions, Banks and Financial Institutions, Independent Investors, Employees, Vendors, and Clients.

To be a successful developer one must realize that one is in a cooperative partnership with a cast of thousands, that one, in a sense, has thousands of bosses.

Often, people think, "If I were rich and powerful, I'd just sit back and tell everyone what to do."

That is the thinking of a foolish person.

Truth is, the more successful one becomes, the more deadlines one has to meet, the more people one has to please, the more physical and mental assets one has to care for.

Massive Power is massive responsibility.

This is Donald Trump's life. I am somewhat familiar with such a life, because my Uncle built and ran a Development company that was on the Dow Jones for several decades. He built a huge number of homes around the country. He laid out entire neighborhoods, reshaped cities, and left a mark on life that will not soon disappear.

And he did all of that work not with hammer and nail and fist, but with his mind and his ability to balance the wills and efforts of huge consortiums of peoples, businesses, and governments.

Now, on the other hand, here is Ted Cruz' life. He is a Senator. He is disliked by his colleagues. He couldn't build a consensus if his dick depended on it.

Ted Cruz is not a Chief Executive. He is an idea man, an excellent orator, and a strong idea man. His strength is in building arguments. And he does so with an autistic obsession; a kind of myopic monomania.

Ted Cruz has no vision for consensus, no talent for leading a Team of Rivals. Because of this, Ted Cruz would have to resort to a dictatorial style. He would be forced to be an authoritarian, or he would get nothing done.

Truth is, the man could not get anything done, whether he was a dictator or not. He has never led in his life. He can not lead. People do not like him. Simple as that.

I like him, but I am a tremendous asshole, and this blog is certainly a testament to that fact.

But, I digress.

It is beyond ironic that people would criticize those of us who support Trump by making the argument that we are looking for a dictator or a king, when Cruz is the guy whose style demands dictatorship in order to be effective.

America can not run on Dictatorial power. It's just not in the system. (You may have noticed Barack Obama complains about that little quirk in our Constitution every now and then.) Ted Cruz simply could not get anything done within the complex Democratic Republic structure.

Ted Cruz is a man whose mouth would be King. His intellect tells him he is the ruler who is right about everything. His rhetoric is a pristine architecture of demands and dogmatic pronouncements.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, excels at greasing the working parts of large machines and pushing them forward into the future.

Careful who you wish to wish for a King. For the wisher is thee.

The Government-Media And The Sleigh-of-Hand Processing of this Very Strange Presidential Election

From one of our commenters:

My spouse insisted on watching the results on Fox last night, clearly reminding me why I no longer watch ANY news, let alone Fox. He tuned in during Hillary's scripted and annoyingly repetitive victory speech. A stationary banner at the bottom of the screen indicating Trump's speech just moments away. Hillary's speech was given in short bursts with the camera swinging to show Bill standing in support nearby while the crowd applauded. Now, about that "crowd"...reallY?!! You could see the wall behind the crowd indicating about ten rows of supporters behind her. Bernie could fill a venue 100x larger. Support for Hillary in the numbers reflected at the polls vs. her campaign stops simply DOES NOT ADD UP! 

Then, instead of switching over to Trump's victory speech as the banner indicated, we get to view Dana Loesch (baseball analogy/quit when game officially over) & Debbie Wasserman Schultz whose vocabulary is a scratched record stuck on misogynist references to Trump. That anyone thinks DWS has a shred of integrity remaining is remarkable.  

Finally, the program shifts to Trump, in mid sentence, terrible lighting with pathetic audio issues which they fixed almost reluctantly. They continuously played with the lighting which made Trump's eyes look like he had white makeup circles pasted around eye slits in shadows...his hair was either glowing white, yellow or orange and finally settled with brilliant yellow with a brown stripe in the center - attempting to have him look like a political skunk? By the time Fox focused on Trump's speech, he was in a question/answer mode.  

Media manipulations like these are why I refuse to turn that damn screen on to anyNEWS program.  

I went online to see the real results. As I searched, I came across a NPR article:Campaign Mystery: Why Don't Bernie Sanders' Big Rallies Lead To Big Wins? From which I quote 

"The Enthusiasm Gap May Be An Optical Illusion"..."Howard"..."Dean offers a couple of theories about what causes the disconnect. For one thing, when he was campaigning in Iowa back in 2003, he started to notice the same faces from event to event. He thinks that is happening with Sanders." 

**** 

Integrity in elections - the new/old Prestige illusionist game

And then this, from Nico:

Muted the TV when Hillary was talking...then it was kinda weird because she looked like she'd been constipated for a while and was busy taking a giant crap on stage while her worshipers clapped and encouraged her on. 

IT’S OFFICIAL - Ted Cruz Is Mathematically ELIMINATED from GOP Race

EliminaTED

CastraTED

PenetraTED

DefeaTED

CRUSIN' CRUZ HAS CRUISED

Ted Cruz is eliminated. It is clear that Cruz was eliminated tonight. It is not clear yet on how devastating the final numbers will be for Ted Cruz. 

After winning all five primaries tonight — Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania — Donald Trump has over 926 delegates so far.

GO GET THE STORY.

Johnny Cash

Live At Manhattan Center 1994

Polling Place Report or How MR Got His Hooha On On A Tuesday Afternoon

And so did I, your slightly aging intrepid rock and blues blogger, wake this morning willing and eager to do my Civic Duty and Constitutionally protected God Given Right of casting my vote for the man I hope would rescue this Great Nation from the doldrums and desperation in which it has decades long been mired.

And I had done my homework well on this one. besides weighing the pros and con of the candidates, I was not going to let recent electoral shenanigans thwart my lever pull for my said candidate by inadvertently pulling levers for delegates that would cast their lot for the other guys. No, I had printed the delegate manifests which included their preferred lot casting, gave copies of it to my wife and fellow like minded voters, but making sure not to share the information with supporters of the other guys.

I had been watching the cable reports and knew that I may be in for a long wait not unlike a medieval siege at the polling place and had prepared accordingly. My stylishly camo rucksack contained:

A large thermos of coffee and Sierra Cup



3 full size Nalgene bottles of water



A bottle of Halazone tablets in case the water ran out and I had to replenish from mud puddles and such.

Carton of Pall Mall Blue

Half dozen Arturo Fuente Special cigars




A loaf of pumpernickel.



A block of cheese.



A few pathetic oranges, a bunch of properly spotted bananas and 2 tasty jazz apples.



Steaks and chops.



5 lb bag of Jasmine rice I pilfered from my wife.

A Whisperlite stove to cook them on.



My trusty Zippo for lighting the stove stogies and smokes.




Bic lighter in case the Zippo quit.

3 boxes Swann Vestas in case the Bic quit.



My favorite trusty Eye Brand large stockman.



My equally trusty Swiss Army Climber for cutting the cheese (stop snickering) and oranges.

My Super trusty and well used Kabar Mk II Marine Corps Knife/Fighting Utility for foraging wood for fire, shelter, digging cat holes and other possibly nefarious things (hey, ya never know when things could get desperate)



A fifth of Wild Turkey 101 proof (for sharing and bribing election officials)




 and a fifth of Knob Creek 120 proof single barrel reserve (that's just for me)



My cellular device with handy dandy camera for documenting the entire event and snapping pictures of Treasury Agents or other such Federal Administration provocateurs peering stealthily from the bushes and begonias with binoculars and note pad jotting down the make model and license plate number of anyone who may look too conservative and thus dangerous for their liking.




And so did I toss all this into the bed of my Black Ford Ranger (couldn't fit it in the cab) hoping it would be secure enough while I was at the day job where I had to report before the polls were open.

I spent my shift stowing stuff and steeling myself for the long wait to come.

Thus at 11:32 a.m. did I pull into the parking lot of my Precinct Polling Place
in the Sixth Congressional District in the Great Mid Atlantic State of Pennsylvania.



I exited my vehicle and...

...there was no one there.

No one with banners and bunting handing out buttons and badges and bumper stickers, American flags and flyers and various and sundry other tchotchkies.



No protestors police G-men or Treasury agents.

No bloody broken bone brawls fights loud arguments or even hurt feelings.



No voters.

No crickets.

No one.

Nothing.

Nada.

Zip. Zero  Zilch.

And so I left my bag of swag in the black back of the truck. 

And made my way to cast my ballot.

At the door of the Precinct Polling Place, which during regular non-election times doubles as a retirement home, being my genteel self I held the door for an octogenarian with a walker. Both doors, actually..

For which she thanked me profusely.

Said I was very nice. Very kind. Very sweet. If she was twenty years younger she'd snatch me up. I told her not to let that stop her (cougars, dude, cougars).



So she asked me to marry her.

I think I may have found my sugar mama.

Cast my ballot and was home with a ham and cheese sandwich by noon.

p.s. if anyone knows someone headed to Cleveland -- or maybe an Occupy Wall Street mob -- who might be in need of some high quality gear send them my way.

BREAKING: TED CRUZ' FATHER DID NOT KILL JFK

I could not find any news proving Rafael Cruz did not kill JFK, so how about some boobs instead.

Giuliani Gets It: "American People Are Telling Us Something, They Don't Like Backroom Deals, Don't Like These Shenanigans

Exactly!

 

Hey GOP, you don't yet realize just how dead you are.

Islamisation is banned by the constitution in Hungary

We need this government!

Islamisation is banned by the constitution in Hungary

At a ceremony on the fifth anniversary of the promulgation of the Fundamental Law, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Islamisation is banned by the constitution in Hungary. 

The Hungarian government cannot support any mass migration movements which could lead to results conflicting with the National Avowal contained within the Fundamental Law. 

“Neither the legislature nor the government of the day may pursue such a policy within constitutional boundaries”, he said. He said that in drafting the “Schengen 2.0” action plan, the Hungarian government is fulfilling its constitutional obligation to protect Hungary’s citizens. 

The external borders must be protected, and procedures regarding those wishing to come to Europe must be conducted outside the EU, in enclosed and guarded areas, the Prime Minister reiterated.

In his view it is likewise reasonable to expect illegal migrants to be sent back without delay to safe transit countries, or to their countries of origin if the latter are safe. 

He also argued that development and visa agreements with countries outside Europe must be tied to conditions. 

Mr. Orbán pointed out that it is important that the responses to demographic and labour market challenges are the sovereign decisions of Member States. 

The Prime Minister said that, in order to meet the constitutional obligation of protecting the citizens of Hungary, “we must know who wants to come to our country and why; in other words, we have the right to choose whom we wish to live together with and whom we do not wish to live together with”. 

He added that this is not in conflict with the principle of the universal protection of refugees.

The National Enquirer Says Ted Cruz' Father Used To Hang Out With Lee Harvey Oswald

Tabloid says it has proof: Ted Cruz’s father is mystery man in Lee Harvey Oswald photo 

Lee Harvey Oswald, front left, standing next to man never identified by the Warren Commission, center in white shirt, handing out leaflets for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee taken outside the International Trade Mart in New Orleans on Aug.16, 1963. 

Hilariously hilarious.

From the Miami Herald:

The National Enquirer is now saying that they have determined through photo analysis that the man is Rafael B. Cruz, father of GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz. 

WASHINGTON The National Enquirer has published what it says is conclusive evidence that Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael B. Cruz, is the man photographed next to JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald distributing pro-Castro leaflets in 1963 in New Orleans. 

The Cruz presidential campaign fired back unequivocally. “This is another garbage story in a tabloid full of garbage,” communications director Alice Stewart told McClatchy. “The story is false; that is not Rafael in the picture.” 

The explosive suggestion that Cruz’s father would have had any affiliation with Oswald is not corroborated in any other way. Cuban-born Rafael Cruz is now a fervent anti-communist, but there was a time he supported then-rebel leader Fidel Castro. 

His son, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, frequently relates his father’s arrest and torture by government officials and subsequent escape to the United States. 

The elder Cruz ended up at the University of Texas at Austin and still supported Castro, who led the revolution that overthrew the Batista regime in 1959. Castro formally declared himself Marxist in 1961. 

"The U.S. government was duped. The American people were duped. I was duped,” Rafael Cruz wrote in his book, “A Time for Action,” released in January.

“When people ask me why I supported Castro in over-throwing the Cuban government, I readily admit that I didn’t realize he was a communist.” 

There are photos of Rafael Cruz participating in a pro-Castro rally in 1959 and an article in the student newspaper where he describes his support for Castro. 

And one report questions the extent of the elder Cruz’s connections to Castro before fleeing Cuba. 

The photos of Oswald distributing pro-Castro literature are from August 1963, just a few months before the JFK assassination in Dallas, which the Warren Commission Report on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy said was carried out by Oswald. 

The tabloid hired photo experts who compared the elder Cruz’s photos from the late 1950s and early 1960s with the ones released by the Warren Commission. 

The man in the white shirt next to Oswald was never identified by the commission, and the Enquirer is now saying it was Cruz and blasted on its May 2 cover that “Ted Cruz Father Now Linked to JFK Assassination!”

GO READ THE WHOLE THING. 

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE ...

EVEN FURTHER OUT THERE THAN YOU MIGHT IMAGINE.

Was the father of presidential hopeful Cruz involved in the JFK assassination? 

by Wayne Madsen Report 

Was the father of presidential hopeful Cruz involved in the JFK assassination? by Wayne Madsen Report Previous questions have surfaced about the 1960s activities of Rafael Cruz, Sr., the father of GOP presidential hopeful Rafael Cruz, Jr. (Ted Cruz). 

Based on the presence of the elder Cruz, an anti-Castro activist, in Dallas and New Orleans before the November 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy, there is a strong reason to believe that Cruz was associated with Central Intelligence Agency's anti-Castro operations. 

Furthermore, a Cuban hired by alleged JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and who bears a striking resemblance to Cruz is seen in an iconic photograph of Oswald and a group of Cubans Oswald hired who were distributing "Hands off Cuba!" pamphlets in New Orleans in the summer of 1963. 

The photo of Oswald and other Cubans he hired for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee was taken outside the International Trade Mart in New Orleans on August 16, 1963. 

WMR has been informed by a source that the individual to Oswald's left is none other than Rafael Cruz. The photograph at the trade mart was favorably compared to a 1957 photograph of Cruz attached to an official Cuban Ministry of Education document.

GO READ THE WHOLE THING.

For the record, I do not believe this story. HOWEVER, Cruz' father is out of his fucking mind. He believes his son is "ANOINTED" by God "to take control of society."

Now, he is also a very intelligent man. And, he is a very moral man. And, he is a very driven man.

What happens to an intelligent, moral, and driven man if he is involved in something, even peripherally, that leads to the assassination of a major historical figure?

The answer: HE GOES CRAZY.

What I'm saying here is, if this story were true, it would explain what is wrong with Rafael Cruz. In a way, he could be seen as making Herculean efforts to make up for his past sins, by doing something, and being a part of something that would bring about, what he sees as, an immense good for society.

On the other hand, this could just be the new "Obama was born in Kenya" story for 2016. More likely it is just that.

After all, Wayne Madsen is pretty fucking cray-cray himself:

In 2014 Madsen self-published a book that said that both Israel and Saudi Arabia were intimately involved in planning and carrying out the 9/11 attack on the United States as a "false-flag" attack. 

Madsen has reported that Obama is gay. The Nation writing on that conspiracy theory reported that Wayne Madsen "is the source on Obama’s visits to the bath house and who revealed how Obama used basketball pickup games to pick up men. Obama, Madsen says, had homosexual trysts with Representative Artur Davis, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Senate majority leader Bill Frist!" 

In 2012 Madsen self-published a book Manufacturing a President that said that Barack Obama was a creation of the CIA. 

In 2003 he claimed that he had uncovered information in a classified congressional report that he said contained information linking the September 11 attacks to the government of Saudi Arabia and the Bush administration through financial transactions with the hijackers. The Saudi Foreign Minister demanded the report be declassified so it could respond, however, the Bush administration refused, claiming that to do so would compromise intelligence sources and methods.[38]

Disturbed

Sound Of Silence

 

The Light

What Are You Waiting For

Michael Chabon's an enemy of Israel

The author took a tour of Hebron with the wrong crowd:

Chabon’s tour to the West Bank was led by Breaking the Silence, the controversial Israeli group that collects and distributes Israeli soldiers’ testimony about their service in the occupied territory. Chabon, along with his wife Ayelet Waldman, are two of the 24 leading novelists who will visit East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza over the next few months to research a book of essays marking 50 years of Israeli occupation. The couple will edit the book, which aims to illuminate what it’s like to live under Israeli military rule. Chabon’s essay will focus on Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American businessman who moved to Ramallah to build the Palestinian economy in the wake of the Oslo peace accords, only to watch the Israeli occupation deepen around him.

[...] Now, Chabon will address Israel’s darkest issues head on. His attention to the occupation, sparked by Waldman’s 2014 trip to Hebron, comes out of a place of deep concern for Israel. “I do love Israel. I do care about Israel,” he said. “To dehumanize others dehumanizes you. It is bad for Israel and if it ended it would be good for Israel.”

[...] The Forward, which accompanied the authors’ Breaking the Silence tour for two days, sat down for an interview with Chabon at the group’s hotel in the stately Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Chabon was visibly jarred by what he had seen the day before in Hebron, calling the occupation “the most grievous injustice I have ever seen in my life.” He talked about the role of authors in addressing human rights issues, his childhood relationship to Israel and whether he is worried about alienating Jewish readers with his anti-occupation stance. (He’s not.)

But he is. Well, certainly if they read his books, but I wouldn't be surprised if not many actually do. Who really needs this creepy novelist anyway? A man who's clearly unconcerned about Muslim honor killings, for example, proving he's not worried about dehumanization. And while he may not be associating with Taayush, I guess he's not concerned about Ezra Nawi's assistance to the PLO either. No sane person should put money into Chabon's pockets. He is one truly awful writer indeed.

Collusion

The absurdity of these two clowns astonishes me.

Neither man has a path to claiming the nomination outright and there is a case to be made that even combined they couldn't secure the nominaton outright.

So instead of giving a shit about the country or their party or the will of the voters they are goin to tag team against Trump just to make sure he is thwarted.

I don't know how much more petty you can get in politics.

But then again it's still seven months until the election and I have pretty much lost perspective on absurd this year.

Rest assured, at this point with these latest shenanigans if Trump is not the nominee I will either pull the Libertarian lever (as one of our commenters has also stated), not vote or write in one of our contributors names.

And I will not vote for any Republican incumbent.

Fox:

Cruz, Kasich campaign announce collaboration to deny Trump delegates

The presidential campaigns of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich announced late Sunday that they were coordinating their efforts in three upcoming primary states in an extraordinary attempt to prevent Republican front-runner Donald Trump from clinching the GOP nomination before this summer's convention.
In a pair of simultaneously released statements, the campaigns announced that Kasich would pull out of Indiana to give Cruz "a clear path" ahead of that state's winner-take-all primary May 3, while the Cruz campaign will "clear the path" for Kasich in Oregon, which votes May 17, and New Mexico, which votes June 7.
"Having Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in November would be a sure disaster for Republicans," Cruz's campaign manager, Jeff Roe, said. "To ensure that we nominate a Republican who can unify the Republican Party and win in November, our campaign will focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Gov. Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico, and we would hope that allies of both campaigns would follow our lead."

RCP Poll Average for Republican Presidential Nomination | InsideGov

The arrangement marks a sharp reversal for Cruz's team, which aggressively opposed the idea of a coordinated anti-Trump effort as recently as late last week. Yet it underscores a bleak reality for the billionaire businessman's Republican foes: Time is running out to stop him.
Trump responded on Twitter shortly before midnight Monday.

A statement from the Trump campaign called the move "a horrible act of desperation from two campaigns who have horribly failed."

The Kasich campaign confirmed to Fox News that it had canceled two Indiana campaign events scheduled for Tuesday. As recently as three days ago Kasich's campaign announced investments in Indiana, including the opening of two offices and the creation of a campaign leadership team.
Campaign manager John Weaver said in his statement that the Kasich team hoped to perform well in Oregon and New Mexico, which Weaver said were "structurally similar" to northeastern states where Kasich performed well earlier in the cycle.
"Our goal is to have an open convention in Cleveland," Weaver added, "where we are confident a candidate capable of uniting the party and winning in November will emerge as the nominee."
The announcement came less than 48 hours before voting begins across five Northeastern states where the New York billionaire is poised to add to his already overwhelming delegate lead. Trump campaigned Sunday in Maryland, which will vote on Tuesday along with Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Trump needs 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination. If he falls short, the national Republican gathering in July will evolve into a rare contested convention.
At a rally in Hagerstown, Md., Trump stressed repeatedly that he expects to win the 1,237 delegates needed in the first round of voting to stave off a contested convention.
"I only care about the first. We're not going for the second and third and fourth and fifth," said Trump.
Even before the plan was announced, Cruz had all but abandoned the Northeastern states in favor of Indiana, which holds its primary on May 3. Both Cruz and Kasich had cast the state as a critical turning point.
"Keeping Trump from winning a plurality in Indiana is critical to keeping him under 1,237 bound delegates before Cleveland," Kasich's campaign said Sunday. "We are very comfortable with our delegate position in Indiana already, and given the current dynamics of the primary there, we will shift our campaign's resources west and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana."
Indiana will award 57 delegates to the winner of its primary. Oregon and New Mexico have 28 and 24 proportionately awarded delegates at stake, respectively.