Path clear for controversial billionaire as main rivals Cruz and Kasich bow out of race for US presidential nomination.

[Reuters]

Donald Trump has gone from long-shot contender to the Republican party’s presumptive nominee for president with a crushing win in Indiana that forced his main rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich out of the race.

Addressing jubilant supporters at Trump Tower in New York after romping to his seventh straight state-wide victory, the real estate mogul promised them: “We’re going to win in November, and we’re going to win big, and it’s going to be America first.”

Kasich announced he dropped out of the Republican presidential race on Wednesday evening.

Trump won at least 51 of 57 possible delegates awarded in Indiana, according to the Associated Press news agency delegate tracker. His victory in the state pushed him to 1,047 delegates of the 1,237 needed to clinch the nomination, compared with 153 for Kasich.

Cruz had 565 delegates before suspending his campaign.

“This phenomenon is just amazing,” Peter Mathews, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera. “Trump seems to have got free television time. He got an estimated $1bn of free time during the election.”

Trump’s immediate challenge is to unite deep fissures within the Republican Party as many party loyalists are appalled at his bullying style, his treatment of women and his signature proposals to build a wall on the border with Mexico and deport 11 million illegal immigrants.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called Trump the party’s presumptive nominee in a tweet and said, “We all need to unite and focus” on defeating Clinton.

The former reality TV star himself called for unity in a speech at a victory rally that was free of his usual bombast and flamboyance.

Calling Indiana a “tremendous victory”, he immediately directed fire at Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

“We’re going after Hillary Clinton,” he said. “She will not be a great president, she will not be a good president, she will be a poor president. She doesn’t understand trade.”

Clinton upset

Clinton on Tuesday suffered an upset in Indiana as her rival Bernie Sanders mounted a come-from-behind victory, denying the former secretary of state a feather in her cap as she seeks their party’s presidential nomination.

Sanders, a self-declared socialist, beat Clinton by 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent with about three quarters of precincts reporting – although Clinton remained well ahead in the overall delegate battle for the nomination.

“Bernie Sanders was behind several points just a few weeks ago. Thousands were turning up to his rallies even in thunderstorms to hear what he had to say,” Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Indianapolis, said.

“A narrow victory in Indiana is enough to re-inject his campaign with momentum and for him to say that he is going to take it all the way to Democratic convention in Philadelphia in the summer.”

As the race was called overwhelmingly in Trump’s favour, Cruz conceded to supporters in Indianapolis that he no longer had a viable path forwards.

“We left it all on the field in Indiana,” Cruz said. “We gave it everything we’ve got, but the voters chose another path.

“And so with a heavy heart, but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign.”

Al Jazeera’s Fisher said that Indiana had become a pivotal point in the race.

“On the Republican side, Cruz lost the primary by a significant margin. His appeal to voters simply did not work,” he said.

Trump, who has never held public office, is likely to formally wrap up the nomination on June 7 when California votes, although Ohio Governor John Kasich had vowed to stay in the race as his last challenger.

Washington: Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump has used fake Indian accent to mock a call center representative in India.

At the same time, he described India as a great place, asserting that he is not angry with Indian leaders.

The billionaire from New York said that he called up his credit card company to find out whether their customer support is based in the US or overseas.

“Guess what, you’re talking to a person from India. How the hell does that work?” he told his supporters in Delaware.

“So I called up, under the guise I’m checking on my card, I said, ‘Where are you from?'” Trump said and then he copied the response from the call center in a fake Indian accent.

“We are from India,” Trump impersonated the response.

“Oh great, that’s wonderful,” he said as he pretended to hang up the phone.

“India is great place. I am not upset with other leaders. I am upset with our leaders for being so stupid,” he said.

“I am not angry with China. I am not angry at Japan. I am not angry with Vietnam, India…all these countries.”

Trump mentioned the fake call to India during his remarks on what he described as “crooked banking.”

Delaware, is a hub for the America’s banking and credit- card industry. Topping the list include Bank of America, Citibank Delaware, M&T Bank and PNC Financial Services Group.

“They are making a lot of money,” he said.

“You can’t allow policies that allows China, Mexico, Japan, Vietnam, India. You can’t allow policies that allows business to be ripped out of the United States like candy from a baby,” Trump said in his address.

“The manufacturing jobs are being stolen. Our jobs are being taken. We are losing at every front. There is nothing good. Our country does not win anymore. The jobs are being stripped. Factories are closing. We are not going to let this happen anymore,” he said.

Trump said he has as many as 378 companies registered in Delaware, where the Republican presidential primaries is scheduled on April 26 along with several other states.

He is leading in polls against his other primary rivals.

In his speech, Trump praised Delaware’s status as a tax shelter and slammed President Barack Obama for not using the term “radical Islamists” in the fight against terrorism. “I want to run against crooked Hillary,” he said, reiterating that a Trump vs Clinton race would bring the greatest turn out in the history of the American elections.

“We will stomp on Hillary Clinton no one’s ever done.”

He was also critical of Indian-American South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who did not endorse him during the primary.

Delaware has 16 delegates. Trump has 845 delegates, followed by Ted Cruz (559) and John Kasich (148).

(PTI)

‘The truth is his language is dangerous,’ say Bernie Sanders and other critics

“If I win the election for President, we are going to Make America Great Again,” Trump stated in a press release calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” (Photo: Michael Vadon/flickr/cc)

by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams

GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is doubling down on his xenophobic remarks about Muslims, even as they provoke widespread outrage and condemnation across the political spectrum.

On Tuesday, Trump defended his fascist plan for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” by comparing it with President Franklin Roosevelt’s decision to inter Japanese Americans during World War II.

“This is a president who was highly respected by all,” Trump said in morning TV interviews on Tuesday. “If you look at what he was doing, it was far worse.”

But those who oppose Trump’s controversial platform dispute his interpretation of both history and current events.

“For God’s sake,” Council on American-Islamic Relations executive director Nihad Awad told ABC7 in Washington, D.C. on Monday night. “Haven’t we learned lessons from history by targeting religious minorities and ethnic minorities?”

Flanked by members of Congress and civil rights leaders at a Virginia press conference earlier on Monday, Awad declared: “Donald Trump is using his platform to create a division within America. Leadership is about uniting Americans, not exploiting division based on race and religion. I know it is helping Donald Trump and others to stay high in the polls, but they are low in the minds of those who think and reflect upon our history.”

Still, Awad and others warned that to write off Trump’s bombast would be dangerous.

“[I]t’s important not to treat Trump as some radical aberration,” The Intercept‘s Glenn Greenwald wrote on Tuesday. “He’s essentially the American id, simply channeling pervasive sentiments unadorned with the typical diplomatic and PR niceties designed to prettify the prevailing mentality. He didn’t propose banning all Muslims from entering the U.S. because it’s grounded in some fringe, out-of-the-mainstream ideas. He proposed it in part to commandeer media attention so as to distract attention away from his rivals and from that latest Iowa poll, but he also proposed it because he knows there is widespread anti-Muslim fear and hatred in the U.S.”

He continued: “Whatever else you want to say about him, Trump is a skillful entertainer, and good entertainers—like good fascist demagogues—know their audience.”

Noting that “cultural, religious, ideological, financial and tribalistic motives for isolating and demonizing Muslims” preexist Trump’s candidacy, Greenwald warned: “Trump is not an outlier, and it’s dangerous to treat him as one.”

White House hopeful Bernie Sanders, whom recent polls have shown would beat Trump in a general election match-up, added his censure to the mix in an email to supporters late Monday night.

“It’s fun for the political media to treat Donald Trump like he’s the lead character in a soap opera or the star player on a baseball team,” Sanders said. “But the truth is his language is dangerous, especially as it empowers his supporters to act out against Muslims, Latinos, and African-Americans.”

Other presidential contenders blasted Trump’s comments as “unhinged,” “fascist” and “downright dangerous.”

And the watchdog group Media Matters revealed Monday that Trump’s proposal leans on a misleading poll from a group led by “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes,” Frank Gaffney, president of the conservative thinktank Center for Security Policy.

Members of New York City’s Arab, Muslim, and human rights communities are planning to gather at Columbus Circle near the International Trump Tower on Thursday in solidarity with refugees and in protest of harmful racism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia.

Leading Republican presidential hopeful cites “extraordinary influx of hatred” in statement that is swiftly condemned.

Trump has been increasingly virulent in his remarks targeting Muslim Americans since the Paris attacks [Reuters]

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has called for a “total and complete” block on Muslims entering the United States.

A statement from Trump’s campaign team said the halt on Muslims entering the country should remain in place “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

The statement does not specify if the proposal would affect both tourists and immigrants.

Trump’s campaign cites poll data allegedly showing “hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population”.

“Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine,” the billionaire real estate mogul, who is leading in opinion polls among likely Republican voters, said in the statement.

“Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.”

Trump has been increasingly virulent in his remarks targeting Muslim Americans since the deadly Paris attacks, and again in the wake of last week’s shooting attack in California, which was carried out by a Muslim couple, leaving 14 dead and 21 wounded.

“Just put out a very important policy statement on the extraordinary influx of hatred & danger coming into our country. We must be vigilant!” Trump tweeted after the statement was released.

His announcement unleashed quick condemnation on Twitter.

“@realdonaldtrump removes all doubt: he is running for President as a fascist demagogue,” Democratic presidential contender Martin O’Malley said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations group said: “We’re entering into the realm of the fascist now.”