Donald Trump Responds to Ted Cruz, John Kasich Campaigns: ‘DESPERATION!’

Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump addresses the crowd during a rally at the
AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast
Alex Swoyer
Washington, DC

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump responded on Twitter late Sunday night to the announcement that Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) have a coordinated effort to stop Trump in upcoming primaries.

Late Sunday night, Katich’s campaign announced they are focusing on Oregon and New Mexico, while Cruz’s campaign focuses on Indiana, adding, “We would expect independent third-party groups to do the same and honor the commitments made by the Cruz and Kasich campaigns.”

The full statement from the Kasich campaign is as follows:

Tonight, Kasich for America chief strategist John Weaver issued the following statement:

“Donald Trump doesn’t have the support of a majority of Republicans – not even close, but he currently does have almost half the delegates because he’s benefited from the existing primary system. Our goal is to have an open convention in Cleveland, where we are confident a candidate capable of uniting the Party and winning in November will emerge as the nominee. We believe that will be John Kasich, who is the only candidate who can defeat Secretary Clinton and preserve our GOP majority in the Congress.

Due to the fact that the Indiana primary is winner-take-all statewide and by congressional district, keeping Trump from winning a plurality in Indiana is critical to keeping him under 1237 bound delegates before Cleveland. 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.

In turn, we will focus our time and resources in New Mexico and Oregon, both areas that are structurally similar to the Northeast politically, where Gov. Kasich is performing well. We would expect independent third-party groups to do the same and honor the commitments made by the Cruz and Kasich campaigns.

We expect to compete with both the Trump and Cruz campaigns in the remaining primary states.

Also on Sunday night, Cruz’s campaign manager Jeff Roe also released a statement revealing a parallel strategy.

Having Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in November would be a sure disaster for Republicans. Not only would Trump get blown out by Clinton or Sanders, but having him as our nominee would set the party back a generation. 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. In other states holding their elections for the remainder of the primary season, our campaign will continue to compete vigorously to win.

Sen. Ted and wife Heidi Cruz will spend the day before the five state Acela primary contests — Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware and Rhode Island — in none of them, opting instead to focus on securing votes in more favorable states Indiana and Nebraska. The Texas senator will hold four events in Indiana on Monday. Wife Heidi Cruz will hold three meet and greet events in Nebraska that day in Omaha, Fremont and Norfolk.

***UPDATE***

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump continued to blast Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) Monday morning on Twitter:

Trump’s campaign also issued a press release around 1 a.m. Monday morning:

It is sad that two grown politicians have to collude against one person who has only been a politician for ten months in order to try and stop that person from getting the Republican nomination.

Senator Cruz has done very poorly and after his New York performance, which was a total disaster, he is in free fall and as everyone has seen, he does not react well under pressure. Also, approximately 80% of the Republican Party is against him. Governor Kasich, who has only won 1 state out of 41, in other words, he is 1 for 41 and he is not even doing as well as other candidates who could have stubbornly stayed in the race like him but chose not to do so. Marco Rubio, as an example, has more delegates than Kasich and yet suspended his campaign one month ago. Others, likewise, have done much better than Kasich, who would get slaughtered by Hillary Clinton once the negative ads against him begin. 85% of Republican voters are against Kasich.

Collusion is often illegal in many other industries and yet these two Washington insiders have had to revert to collusion in order to stay alive. They are mathematically dead and this act only shows, as puppets of donors and special interests, how truly weak they and their campaigns are. I have brought millions of voters into the Republican primary system and have received many millions of votes more than Cruz or Kasich. Additionally, I am far ahead of both candidates with delegates and would be receiving in excess of 60% of the vote except for the fact that there were so many candidates running against me.

Because of me, everyone now sees that the Republican primary system is totally rigged. When two candidates who have no path to victory get together to stop a candidate who is expanding the party by millions of voters, (all of whom will drop out if I am not in the race) it is yet another example of everything that is wrong in Washington and our political system. This horrible act of desperation, from two campaigns who have totally failed, makes me even more determined, for the good of the Republican Party and our country, to prevail!

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