The billionaire businessman told a victory rally, “This was an incredible night”.
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Trump, who has previously taken questions from reporters after delivering election night victory speeches, did not do so Tuesday.
Marco Rubio, meanwhile, dropped out after a dismal showing in his home state of Florida.
The scope of Trump’s victory against Rubio in Florida will shock the Republican establishment as much as it will raise hopes the party can challenge in the one-time swing state come November 8.
“I’m a closer”, he said.
Mr Trump thanked his supporters and said this process has toughened him up.
But Trump said he should win the Republican nomination even if he doesn’t get 1,237 delegates. The party leadership that has been target of Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s insults and accusations reviles him though he is the closest rival to Mr. Trump. “Many Republicans are looking for a non- Cruz, non-Trump alternative”, he said.
He added: “If you disenfranchise those people and you say, well I’m sorry but you’re 100 votes short, even though the next one is 500 votes short, I think you would have problems like you’ve never seen before”. Kasich has not won any Republican contests to date.
“I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically”.
“I think we will win before getting to the convention”, he continued.
Now thrust into the centre of a campaign that has been bitingly personal, Mr Kasich vowed to cheering supporters in Berea, Ohio, that he would “not take the low road to the highest office in the land”.
Trump figures to return the favor. Kasich also said earlier Tuesday that he’ll be “forced, going forward, to talk about some of the deep concerns” he has about Trump’s campaign. “Remember him in second debate, until I put him down”.
“It would be nice to see it happen, but realistically, I don’t think it’s going to happen”, Marchesani said.
Rubio and Kasich said Trump lacks the temperament to be president.
On the Democratic side, Clinton’s victories were blows to Sanders and bolstered her argument that she’s the best Democrat to take on the eventual Republican nominee in the general election.
Trump’s incendiary attacks on immigrants, threats of mass deportations and a proposal for a wall on the border with Mexico have ignited the campaign trail and drawn condemnation in some quarters, including President Barack Obama.
In Central New York, Onondaga County GOP Chairman Tom Dadey is the only prominent Republican to endorse Trump. Trump picked up Florida’s 99 delegates but none of Ohio’s 66, which went to Kasich.
Following a crushing loss in his own state, Republican Florida Sen. But Rubio trailed in the delegate count, having won only three contests so far.
“If this is, as Trump’s foes believe, a battle for the soul of the Republican Party, it’s now more likely than ever before that it won’t be resolved before the convention begins July 18 in Cleveland”.
While the statement did not mention specific candidates, one participant said the majority of people in the meeting wanted to name Cruz as a suggested nominee but were anxious about doing so because of the effect if might have on Kasich. But while Kasich could benefit from Rubio dropping out, he remains an extreme longshot for the nomination, though he could help keep Trump below the 50 percent threshold.
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Rubio told reporters he plans to campaign for next week’s caucuses in Utah regardless of what happens in Florida.
