Donald Trump reacts to the #NeverTrump movement pic.twitter.com/metbFj3O0B
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) April 4, 2016
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Monday slammed the #NeverTrump movement in remarks one day before Wisconsin’s primary.
{mosads}”You know what these are? These are establishment people that don’t want to see it happen because they’re all on the trough; they’re all making a lot of money. I don’t even think in many cases they care who wins; they want to keep it going,” Trump said at a rally in Superior, Wis.
“If they worked this hard to stop Obama, Obama wouldn’t have had a chance, you know that?” Trump said.
Trump acknowledged speculation from Republicans over the fight for the nomination and the possibility for a chaotic contested convention this summer in Cleveland, where the eventual nominee will be selected.
“My eyes are wide open,” Trump said.
Earlier in the day, rival Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) called the potential effort to name a nominee other than Trump or himself at a contested convention a “pipe dream.”
Trump referred to his meeting last week with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus behind closed doors in Washington, D.C., describing Priebus as a “nice man.”
“We are not going to be taken advantage of,” he added.
Trump also lamented the millions of dollars in attack ads being run against him in Wisconsin, a state both Trump and Cruz have predicted could mark a shift in the GOP race.
Trump pointed to tightening polls in the state, stating, “I’m feeling it.”
Trump also knocked Ohio Gov. John Kasich, whom the billionaire has pressured to leave the GOP race, saying, “He’s taking my votes.”
Trump pointed to Kasich’s only win in his home state of Ohio.
“I would have won that one if I had two more days,” Trump said. “I should have left Florida a little bit early, but I didn’t want to take a chance losing Florida.”
Trump sought to discredit the Ohio governor’s blue-collar appeal, saying, “He voted in favor of NAFTA … that sucked the businesses from Wisconsin and every place else.”
“And what he wants now is TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership] … a total disaster for our country,” Trump said of the international trade accord. “This is going to make NAFTA look like a baby, folks,” adding, “and Ted Cruz wants it.”
Trump mocked Cruz for speaking like he’s “always debating” and not addressing audiences more casually. “Does that bother people?” Trump asked.
Ripping “lying Ted Cruz,” Trump said, “I don’t want his endorsement, I really don’t.”
“The lying, the deception, the viciousness,” Trump said.
“I’ve never met anybody that lies like him.”
Trump later mentioned family members who have urged him to act more “presidential.”
“I said I will, but I gotta knock off the final two first, if you don’t mind,” Trump said, referring to Cruz and Kasich. He also predicted that “it would be as boring as hell” if he toned down his rhetoric and said he draw smaller crowds.
“Let me be unpresidential just for a little while longer, and maybe I’ll be a little unpresidential as I beat Hillary, because, ugh,” Trump said of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, adding, “We’ll beat Hillary so badly.”
—This report was updated at 3:58 p.m.