Read Donald Trump’s Super Tuesday Victory Speech

33 minute read

Donald Trump broke yet another political tradition when he followed up his victory speech on Super Tuesday by taking questions from reporters.

In a freewheeling back-and-forth, Trump touched on his wins in multiple states and some recent issues in the presidential race.

Here is the full transcript.

TRUMP: Chris, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

This has been an amazing evening. Already, we’ve won five major states and it looks like we could win six or seven or eight or nine.

(APPLAUSE)

It’s really been — it’s really been great.

I want to congratulation Ted on the winning of Texas. He worked hard on he — I know how hard he worked actually, and so I congratulate Ted Cruz on that win. That was an excellent win.

We’re going to make America great again, folks. We’re going to make it great again.

And, you know, I watched Hillary’s speech and she’s talking about wages have been poor and everything’s poor and everything’s doing badly, but we’re going to make it — she’s been there for so long. I mean, if she hasn’t straightened it out by now, she’s not going to straighten it out in the next four years. It’s just going to become worse and worse. She wants to make America whole again and I’m trying to figure out what is that all about. Make America great again is going to be much better than making America whole again.

So I just want to say that this was an exciting evening. It’s so great to be in Florida. It’s so great to be at Mar-A-Lago with friends and the press and the media and everybody.

(APPLAUSE)

I know it was a very tough night for Marco Rubio. He had a tough night but he worked hard. He spent a lot of money. He is a lightweight, as I’ve said many times before. But you know what? We’re going to go to Florida, we’re going to spend so much time in Florida. We’ve got about a 20-point lead. I know that a lot of groups, a lot of the special interests and a lot of the lobbyists and the people that want to have their little senator do exactly as they want, they’re going to put $20 million or $25 million into it over the next two weeks, from what just came over the wires. And frankly, I think that’s fine. As far as I’m concerned, it’s fine. And if he wins, they’ll have totally controlled — total control. But he’s not going anywhere anyway, but we’ll see what happens. But we’re going to spend a lot of time in Florida.

The Virginia one was just a great win because it’s a place that is just spectacular and a place that we have big investments in, as we have in Florida. Remember, we have thousands of employees in Florida, all along Miami, Doral and Mar-A-Lago and so many other places. And it’s been an amazing place to invest. It’s been amazing to have so many wonderful employees, so many of whom are here tonight, really urging us on.

And you know, I have thousands of employees all over the country, actually, all over the world but for purposes of tonight, we’ll just say all over the country. And it’s been just so beautiful to watch this company grow and to watch it grow so strongly.

Recent articles came out talking about how great a company we built, and now we want to put that same ability into doing something for our nation. I mean, our nation is in serious trouble. We’re being chilled on trade, absolutely destroyed. China is just taking advantage of us. I have nothing against China. I have great respect for China, but their leaders are too smart for our leaders. Our leaders don’t have a clue and the trade deficits at $400 billion and $500 are too much. No country can sustain that kind of trade deficit. It won’t be that way for long. We have the greatest business leaders in the world on my team already and, believe me, we’re going to redo those trade deals and it’s going to be a thing of beauty.

You look at countries like Mexico, where they’re killing us on the border, absolutely destroying us on the border. They’re destroying us in terms of economic development. Companies like Carrier Air Conditioner just moving into Mexico. Ford, moving into Mexico. Nabisco, closing up shop in Chicago and moving into Mexico. We have to stop it, folks. I know how to stop it. We’re going to create jobs. We’re going to create jobs like you’ve never seen.

We’re going to lower taxes. I have a plan that Larry Kudlow and so many others think is the best plan they’ve seen. We’re going to lower taxes substantially for the middle class. The middle class has been forgotten in our country. It really helped and really probably was the predominant factor in making our country into a country that we all love so much and we’re all so proud of, but we’ve forgotten the middle class. So we’re going to lower taxes.

We’re lowering taxes on business. You look at all the companies that are moving out. When you see Pfizer moving to Ireland and you see so many other companies, constantly now they’re leaving. They used to move from New York to Florida, or they’d move from New Jersey to someplace else, Chris. But now they’re moving from here — (LAUGHTER) — not that many people are leaving New Jersey. But Chris understands the problem, fully understands. Now they’re leaving from places that they used to move to into other parts of the world. We can’t let that happen.

We’ve lost our manufacturing jobs. We’ve lost our manufacturing. Millions and millions of jobs, thousands and thousands and thousands of plants, manufacturing plants, warehouses. I mean, we are losing so much. We can’t let it happen.

I tell the story often about a friend of mine who is in the excavation business and he always orders Caterpillar. And recently, he ordered Komatsu tractors from Japan because they’ve cut the yen. They’ve devalued the yen to such an extent that it was virtually impossible for Caterpillar to compete. And I don’t want that to happen. That’s not going to happen. They shouldn’t be allowed to do it.

We have tremendous power over everybody because we are really the source. We have great, great power. The problem is we have politicians who truly, truly, truly don’t know what they’re doing. So we’re going to work very, very hard.

I’m so honored by this evening. If you would’ve told me on June 16th, when I was with my wife, Melania, and we came down the escalator in Trump Tower and it looked, literally, well, a little bit like this. You have a lot of cameras here tonight.

(APPLAUSE)

It looked, literally, like the Academy Awards. I never saw so many cameras in my life. And it takes courage to run. I’ll tell you what, it takes a lot of courage to run for president. I’ve never done this before. I’ve been a job-producer. I’ve done a lot of things but this is something I’ve never done, but I felt we had to do it. When you look at the incompetence of the Iran deal, where we give $150 billion, we get absolutely nothing. When you look at all of the problems our country has and you look at our military, which is really being depleted rapidly, depleted. We’re going to make our military bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and nobody, nobody, nobody is going to mess with us, folks, nobody.

(APPLAUSE)

So it’s just an amazing honor to have you with me tonight. And if you want, press, I think we told you before we’d be okay if you want to ask a few questions.

Yes, go ahead.

QUESTION: Mr. Trump, you said that your campaign is focused on uniting, no dividing.

TRUMP: Yeah, right.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) — would suggest you’re dividing not just the country but your party. There’s been a lot of pressure recently to either support or reject you within the Republican Party specifically. Some strongly worded statements coming out in recent days, including one from the senator from Nebraska, Ben Sasse, said, “If DonaldTrump ends up as the Republican nominee, conservatives will need to find a third-party option.”

What do you say?

TRUMP: Well, they can always do that and then they’ll — then they’ll just lose everything and that would be the — that would be the work of a loser.

But let me just explain something. If you’ve seen what’s happened, whether you go to South Carolina, where I had a huge victory, where we had a tremendous victory in New Hampshire, tremendous in Nevada, you look at what’s happened, and tonight, of course, is the best of all. I mean, right now, they’re projected I guess six, but we could be seven, eight, nine, and major states. It’s Georgia, Alabama, Massachusetts — (CHEERS) — Tennessee, Virginia. And you know, these are amazing states and we’re going to probably get a lot more. In fact, we’re projected to have some pretty good additional numbers.

But I will say this. Look, we have expanded the Republican Party. When you look at what’s happened in South Carolina and you see the kind of numbers that we got, in terms of extra people coming in. They came from the Democratic Party, or the Democrat Party, and they’re Democrats and they’re long-time Democrats and they were never going to switch and they all switched. And they were independents. And we’ve actually expanded the party. Look at the number of votes we had in that area, as an example. Four years ago, they had 390,000 or so votes. We doubled it. We were almost 800,000. Whereas the Democrats went down. There’s much less enthusiasm for the Democrats.

So I — look, I’m a unifier. I know people are going to find that a little bit hard to believe, but believe me, I am a unifier. Once we get all of this finished, I’m going to go after one person, that’s Hillary Clinton, on the assumption she’s allowed to run, which is a big assumption. I don’t know that she’s going to be allowed to run. And I think that’s, frankly, going to be an easy race. You see the polls. I beat Hillary in many polls. I know one thing. I don’t think Marco is going to be able to beat her. I don’t think — in all fairness, I think Ted’s going to have a very hard time. But Ted at least has a shot because at least he’s won a little bit.

So I just tell you this. We are going to be a much finer party, a much — we’re going to be a unified party, I mean, to be honest with you. And we are going to be a much bigger party, and you can see that happening. We’re going to be a much bigger party. Our party is expanding. And all you have to do it take a look at the primary states where I’ve won and just look — we’ve gone from X number to a much larger number. That hasn’t happened to the Republican Party in many, many decades. So I think we’re going to be more inclusive. I think we’re going to be more unified and I think we’re going to be a much bigger party, and I think we’re going to win in November. OK, yeah?

(APPLAUSE)

QUESTION: (Inaudible) the Republican nominee? And along those lines, (inaudible) Planned Parenthood —

TRUMP: Right.

QUESTION: Are you trying to inject your tone into a more general election (inaudible)?

TRUMP: I’m just doing what’s right. Look, Planned Parenthood has done very good work for some — for many, many — for millions of women. And I’ll say it and I know a lot of the so-called conservatives, they say that’s really — because I’m a conservative, but I’m a common-sense conservative. But millions of women have been helped by Planned Parenthood. But we’re not going to allow and we’re not going to fund as long as you have the abortion going on at Planned Parenthood, and we understand that and I’ve said it loud and clear. But — and we’ll see what happens. But Planned Parenthood — millions of people — and I’ve had thousands of letters from women that have been helped. And this wasn’t a setup. This was people writing letters. I’m going to be really good for women. I’m going to be good for women’s health issues. It’s very important to me, very important to me.

(APPLAUSE) And maybe that’s not a perfect conservative view, but I can tell you one thing. I’m more conservative than anybody on the military, on taking care of our vets, on the border, on the wall, on getting rid of Obamacare and coming up with something much, much better, and certainly, getting rid of common core and bringing education to a local level so that you’re going to have good education for our children who are being absolutely starved for proper education.

So Sarah, I mean, you know, you can call it what you want, but I am a truth-teller and I will tell the truth, OK?

Yeah, go ahead, finish it.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

TRUMP: I feel awfully good. I mean, I’m watching your people — I’m watching your people on — and I’m going to be very nice, I’m going to be very nice — I’m watching your people on CNN and I’m watching the Fox people and I’m watching the MSNBC people, too, OK? See? I’m becoming diplomatic. (LAUGHTER) And they are certainly being very nice to me tonight. I mean, you know, they’re being very strong. And they are, they’re declaring Marco Rubio the big loser of the night, which is true. He didn’t win anything. He hasn’t won anything, period.

And by the way, and I have to tell you — and he was very, very nasty. I’ve never heard a person get up and speak on an evening like this and be so nasty, but he’s got a right to be nasty. He hasn’t won anything and he’s not going to win very much.

But I do congratulate Ted because I know how hard Ted worked on Texas and it’s a big get. Now I also did very well in Texas. I came in second. And one of the things my son, Eric, told me, which I didn’t even realize, is that not only did I win most of the states — and some are coming in and I’m expected to win them — but I came in second — I came in no worse than second. So it wasn’t like I won and then I disappeared. The worst I had was a second. So I’m very, very honored by the turnout, OK?

Yes, go ahead.

QUESTION: Mr. Trump, in Washington today, Paul Ryan, speaker of the House, and majority leader, Mitch McConnell, felt it necessary to suggest that you had not been clear enough or critical about the role of hate groups, KKK —

TRUMP: Right.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

TRUMP: Right. Oh, they’re totally wrong. Look, I disavowed. I disavowed when I — in fact, Chris is my number one — Chris gave me the honor of joining the campaign. He called me. He said, “Donald, what you’ve got is a movement.” We spoke today in Kentucky. You’ve never seen a crowd like that. That had to be 20,000 people inside this massive convention center and it was incredible. And every place we’re speaking, if we have 10,000 people it’s like a small group. We had 35,000 people the other day in Alabama. And when Chris called, he said this is a movement; this is something like I’ve never seen. And in all fairness to the press, a lot of the press have said the same thing. They’ve never seen what’s happening right now. They’ve never seen anything like it. And I’m just honored by it.

Now, when Chris joined, we had a news conference and they asked me the exact same question. I said I disavow. Now, right after the program that we’re talking about — and I thought it was clear, but you know, we’re talking about groups, groups, groups. I do have to know the name of the group because, who knows? I mean, they have to give me the name of the group. But right after, when I reviewed it, I put out a tweet and I put out on Facebook that I totally disavow. Now everybody knew I did that but the press refused to look at that. It was right after. And I disavowed then; I disavowed today on ABC with George Stephanopoulos, I disavowed again. I mean, how many times are you supposed to disavow? But I disavow and hopefully it’s the final time I have to do it. But if you look at Facebook and if you look at Twitter, right after the show I put out a statement because I want everybody to be sure.

Yes, go ahead.

QUESTION: Mr. Trump, you call yourself a negotiator, a deal- maker. Is this campaign just the start of a negotiation for you, taking extreme positions in order to move toward the middle?

TRUMP: No, it’s not, but there is always going to be some negotiation, and it’s going to be a good negotiation, not a bad negotiation. It’s going to be a negotiation where we’ll start at certain levels and hopefully I will make a great deal, and lots of great deals, for the American people.

So you know, look, you can’t go around just signing our little notices that the president signs all the time, executive orders, he’s done executive order, executive order. It’s almost like, I don’t even know. Does he ever go a deal with Congress anymore? Does he ever speak to the Senate? Does he ever speak with congressmen and get them into a room and get things done?

You know, a good example of this, in all fairness, is something that I — is very, very important to me; corporate inversion. Carl Icahn, who’s a friend of mine who endorsed me, great businessman, he — it bothers him so much he calls me about it all the time, where we’re losing companies. And we’re losing for two reasons. We’re losing for a lot of reasons but the taxes are too high. We have the highest — we’re the highest taxed nation in the world.

And very importantly, they have trillions, for companies, trillions of dollars outside of this country. The Democrats agree it should be brought back in. The Republicans agree it should be brought back in. Everybody agrees it should be brought back in. I could sit in a room — or the Oval Office — for a period of, literally, a half hour and I really believe I could get everybody — every single — you know, it’s one thing they don’t agree on health care or they don’t agree on common core or they don’t agree on other things and they’ll fight. Here’s something every single — I mean, almost everybody agrees. These trillions and trillions of dollars should be brought into the country.

The president can’t make a deal. The reason is he doesn’t know how to make a deal, probably doesn’t work at it, probably doesn’t care, but you’re talking about tremendous number of — tremendous amounts of money. So when you have something that everybody wants and you can’t make a deal, there’s something going on that’s really wrong. And what it means is you have the wrong leader.

Yes?

QUESTION: (Inaudible.) Is immigration negotiable?

TRUMP: Well, look, everything — we are going to have a wall. I can tell you we are going to have a wall. I watched the ex-president of Mexico, the arrogance of this man. And I get along great with Hispanics. You saw in Nevada, I won in the poll, the Hispanic vote. I have thousands of people that work for me right now that are Hispanic. I’ve had thousands and thousands over my lifetime. These are great people. The Mexican leaders are too smart for our leaders and you saw it. Vincente Fox, first of all, he used a word that you should never have — if I ever used that word you folks would’ve never, ever, ever let me get away with it. Nobody even talked about the word he used and this is the ultimate word. But he was angry at the concept of somebody saying that they were going to pay for the wall. Mexico is going to pay for the wall. We have a trade deficit with Mexico of $58 billion a year — $58 billion. The wall is going to cost $10 billion. It’s so easy. I’ve had these guys that I’m on the stage with go you don’t really mean Mexico is going to pay for the wall. One — as sure as you’re standing there, 100 percent, Mexico’s going to pay, 100 percent.

(APPLAUSE)

And the reason is I’m a businessman. I know how to do this. Politicians are all talk, no action. It’s not going to — except for Chris Christie, of course. (LAUGHTER) It’s not — look, it’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen with these people.

So when you think of it — and then they say you’ll never be able to build a wall. Well, it’s 2,000 miles but we really need 1,000 miles. The Great Wall of China, built 2,000 years ago, is 13,000 miles, folks, and they didn’t have Caterpillar tractors, because I only want to use Caterpillar, if you want to know the truth, or John Deere. I buy a lot of equipment from John Deere. I love John Deere, too. But they didn’t have tractors. They didn’t have cranes. They didn’t have excavation equipment. The wall is 13,000 miles long. We need 1,000 miles and we have all of the materials. We can do that so beautifully. And this is going to be a serious wall. This is going to be high wall. This is going to be a very serious wall.

We’re going to stop drugs from coming into New Hampshire. You know, when I won New Hampshire, those people were so incredible to me. And when you go, you wouldn’t believe it because it’s so bucolic, so beautiful. You look at the fields and you look at everything, it’s so beautiful. And yet, you go to a meeting in New Hampshire, their number one problem, their number one problem is heroine. The heroine is pouring in and they have so many of their young people and other people addicted. And I told them I’m going to stop it. I’m going to stop it. We’re going to have a strong border, and I mean strong.

And by the way, speaking of people, people are going to come in and they’re going to come into this country, but they’re going to come in legally, OK?

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

TRUMP: I have a lot of respect for Rick Scott. I don’t know about his endorsement but he’s a friend of mine. I have a lot of respect for Rick Scott.

Yeah?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

TRUMP: I’ve got to find out what’s going on. We’ve got a big problem. We have a big, big problem. I’ll tell it like it is. We have a big, big problem. We’ve got to figure it out. We’re going to figure it out. Radical Islamic terrorism, big, big problem, not only for us. You take a look at Germany, you take a look at Sweden, you take a look at Brussels. You look at some of these places, it’s like a disaster. And we’re not going to allow people to come into our country who we have no idea who they are, we have no idea where they come from, they have no paperwork, they’re young and they’re strong. You look at that migration line; they’re young, they’re strong, they’re powerful. And you say why aren’t they back fighting for their country?

Now, with all of that being said, I feel strongly — I have a bigger heart than anybody. We’re going to build a safe zone. It’s going to be in Syria. And I’m going to get the Gulf states, who have more money than anybody — we’ve got to loosen up their wallets a little bit. We’re going to get — but they’re not accepting people. We’re going to get — wait, wait, wait. We’re going to get the Gulf states to pay for it because they should.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

TRUMP: You heard what I said. I gave you a good answer. You heard what I said.

Yes, go ahead?

QUESTION: Mr. Trump, if you are indeed the nominee who versus Hillary Clinton in the fall, what are you going to do to bring back some of these (inaudible) your campaign so far, such as the Muslims?

TRUMP: Oh, we’re going to bring them back. We’re going to bring them back. Look, I’m telling you — you know how I’m going to bring them back? First of all, we’re going to do great with the African- Americans, and you see that in the polls where I had in one poll where I’m 25 percent. And one of the commentators, who I think is standing right at the back of the room in the corner, said, you know, if Donald Trump gets 25 percent of the African-American vote, this election is over. You watch. And the reason I’m getting that — and I’m going to do great with the Hispanics. I’m going to do great with virtually every group. The reason is I’m going to bring jobs back. I’m going to get Apple to start making their computers and their iPhones on our land, not in China. How does it help us when they make it in China?

(APPLAUSE)

So I’m going to create jobs.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: If Marco Rubio cannot win Florida, is it time for him to get out? And do you plan to spend the $25 million that (inaudible)?

TRUMP: Well, look, I always liked Marco until about a week ago when he decided to go hostile. He decided to become Don Rickles, OK? But Don Rickles has a lot more talent. Honestly, I did, I always liked him but he became — you know, somebody told him you’re losing very badly. The only way you can possibly win, take the hail Mary, they called it a hail Mary, the folks in the back, and go hostile. It’s hurt him. In fact, one of the newscasts tonight said he went down 15 or 20 percent. It’s really hurt him.

But look, I’m not going to tell him what to do. I’m not going to tell anybody what to do. You have to run. He had a bad night, according to CNN, Fox. I watched their broadcasts. They say the loser of the night was Marco Rubio and it’s true. He didn’t win anything. He hasn’t won. I mean, at least you can say that Ted has won something, and you know, Marco has not won. You’ve got to be able to win. You can’t talk. You know, these politicians, all talk, no action. You’ve got to be able to win something. He hasn’t won anything. And he actually hasn’t come very close. So we’ll see what happens.

Yes, go ahead.

QUESTION: Mr. Trump, (inaudible) this question earlier, it was about working with Congress. You criticized President Obama for not working with Congress but dismissed the criticism from Speaker Ryan and from Senate Majority Leader McConnell. (Inaudible) about this issue would be —

TRUMP: I wasn’t equivocating. Let’s not ask it again. How many times do I say — listen, who are you, by the way? Who do you — where are you with?

QUESTION: (Inaudible), Sirius XM.

TRUMP: OK, very good. Good job.

Look, I don’t want to waste a lot of time. I’ve disavowed — OK, I’m going to get along great with Congress, OK? Paul Ryan, I don’t know him well but I’m sure I’m going to get along great with him. And if I don’t, he’s going to have to pay a big price, OK? OK.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

TRUMP: Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. On the right, go ahead. Yes?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

TRUMP: I’m going to be a good president for the world but we have a country that’s in big trouble. Our infrastructure is going to hell, our roads, our highways, our schools, our hospitals, our airports. I go throughout the world. I mean, you go to Qatar, you go to — some people say Qatar, but you go to Qatar, you go to any of — so many places. You go to different places in China, different places in Asia, different places in the Middle East, you look at some of the airports they have. You look at the roadways they have. You look at the transportation systems they have and the trains they have. We’re like a third world country.

So I am going to be very good for the world. I’m going to get along with the world. You’re going to be very proud of me. Even you will be very proud of me as a president. But we have to rebuild our country. Our country is going to hell and people don’t understand that.

And Hillary Clinton doesn’t have a clue. She can’t do that. She’s talking about — I mean, one of the things that has really bothered me, I think one of the reasons I have such great support, is that people, you take a look, people in the middle-income groups are making less money today — less money than they made 12 years ago. And in her speech, she just said they’re making less money. Well, she’s been there with Obama for a long period of time. Why hasn’t she done anything about it? Practically everything that she was complaining about — she’s picked up what I say. The difference is she’s been there for a long period of time. Why haven’t they done anything about it?

Then you look at her record as secretary of State. It’s abysmal. You look at what’s going on with Syria. You look at what’s going on with everything. It’s a disaster.

So we’re going to have an interesting period of time. I don’t know that she’s going to be allowed to run. What she did is a criminal act. If she’s allowed to run I would be very, very surprised. But if she’s allowed to run, honestly, it’ll be a sad day for this country because what she did was wrong. And what she did — (CHEERS) — let me just tell you, what she did was wrong and other people have done far less than her and they paid a very, very big price.

OK, one or two more questions. Yeah, go ahead, Jeremy.

QUESTION: You talked about how you plan to deport all the undocumented immigrants living in this country. And yesterday, you said that everything is negotiable, that your immigration plan is potentially negotiable.

TRUMP: Where did I say that? Where did I say it, Jeremy? Where? Where? Where? Tell me where. Tell me where.

(CROSS-TALK)

I didn’t say that. Yeah, I’ll negotiate. If the walls going to be 50 feet, I’ll take two feet off the wall. You didn’t listen, Jeremy.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) and would you consider allowing the people who you’ve said you would bring back into the country, would you allow them to stay in the country without having to leave the country?

TRUMP: At this moment, absolutely not, no. We either have a country or we don’t. We have a country, or we don’t. We have borders or we don’t have borders. And at this moment, the answer is absolutely not.

OK, how about one or two more questions? David, go ahead. Make it a nice question, David, please.

QUESTION: We’re hearing some suggestions, including some from a few of your former aides, that some people inside the Republican National Committee are considering monkey-wrenching with your delegates at the state level, trying to clear you away (inaudible).

TRUMP: I think — you know, David, I — OK, go ahead.

QUESTION: At the end of the night, you may very well have maybe sewed up 10 of the 15 states at this point. Is that enough of a (inaudible) that the RNC should just commit to honoring their agreement with you or (inaudible)?

<TRUMP: Well, look, I don’t expect — I have a lot of respect for Reince and for the group and I like the RNC and I don’t know that I’ve been treated fairly or not. I really don’t know. I can’t tell you that. But I can tell you that I do respect them.

What I really have is a great number of people. I have millions and millions of people. And when I was watching this broadcast just a little while ago, before I came in here because I wanted to see exactly where we were before I started speaking, I was amazed at the kind of numbers. The Republicans have tremendous energy. The Democrats don’t. They don’t have any energy. Their numbers are down. Our number are through the roof. And people are making the statements they’ve never seen, in modern times, a party that was so energized.

I think if somebody is doing as well as I’m doing — and I’m not just speaking for myself, whether it be me or anybody else — but if I’m going to win five — I’ve already won five, but maybe it could be six, seven, eight, nine. It could be nine, could win nine states tonight. If I’m going to win all of these states with tremendous numbers, and if I’m going to come in the worst is second in the two or three that I might not win, I think, you know, we’re a democracy. I think it’s awfully hard to say that’s not the person we want to lead the party, right? You know, it’s very hard.

But I really think that — I think it’s a great question, David, because I really think that one of the biggest things that everybody is seeing happening, and everybody, is the Republican Party has become more dynamic. It’s become more diverse. We’re taking from the Democrats. We’re taking from the independents. We have a lot more people. We have a lot more people. I mean, take a look at South Carolina. Look at the numbers. Look at the numbers from four years ago when nobody even wanted to waste their time and vote. And then you look at — I was there and you had lines that went a mile long. And it was virtually more than doubled.

So we have a very, very dynamic party and I think we’re going to be able to unify the party. I hope to be able to get along with everybody. I don’t know Paul Ryan well but I hope to be able to get along with him. I do know Mitch McConnell a little bit but I hope to be able to get along with him. But remember this. I have millions and millions and millions of people. This isn’t like it’s a close match. I mean, it’s only too bad that winner didn’t take all, because if winner took all, this thing is over. We’re just having a celebration.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, we’re having a celebration.

So anyway, I would like to — look, I just want to end by thanking everybody. This has been an amazing period in my life. My wife just called and Ivanka, as you know, is going to be having a baby very soon and she’s a special person and it’s going to be great and we look forward to that. She’s back in New York. She wanted to be here. They all wanted to be here but they’re with Ivanka now and that could be, certainly, within the next week. But this this has been an amazing period of time. It’s been amazing for me, even from an educational standpoint. And I think, honestly, we’ve done something that almost nobody thought could be done and I’m very proud of it.

And I just want to leave you with this. I am a unifier. I would love to see the Republican Party and everybody get together and unify. And when we unify, there’s nobody, nobody that’s going to beat us.

Thank you very much everybody. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you very much. Thank you.

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