Cruz: Trump ‘will go steadily down’ after first convention ballot

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Monday predicted that Donald Trump’s support among delegates would plummet if he fails to clinch the nomination on first ballot at the Republican National Convention.

“In all likelihood, we’re going to go to a contested convention,” Cruz said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I believe Donald’s highest total will be on that first ballot, and he will go steadily down.”

{mosads}Cruz said that nominating Trump, the party’s current front-runner, for the White House would prove disastrous for the GOP because he cannot defeat Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee.

“If Donald is the nominee, Hillary Clinton wins, and she wins by double-digits,” Cruz said.

“The stakes are too high for us to hand the election to Hillary Clinton, which is what nominating Donald Trump would do. I don’t believe that Donald is going to be the nominee.”

The Texan argued Trump is denouncing the GOP presidential primary rules because his campaign is losing momentum.

“Donald is not a complicated man to understand. He doesn’t handle losing well. We’ve won five states in a row in landslides over and over and over again. The reason we’re winning state after state is an army of the grassroots rising up.”

Trump’s chief delegate strategist on Sunday said that the businessman would secure the 1,237 delegates necessary for avoiding a contested convention in July.

“There’s not going to be a second ballot,” Paul Manafort said on ABC’s “This Week.” “There are many paths to 1,237 for Donald Trump … and we are working all of those paths.”

Trump leads Cruz and John Kasich by roughly 10 points nationwide, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls. He also has 755 delegates compared with Cruz’s 559 and Kasich’s 144.