“Actually I was happy, because it shows how weak they are, it shows how pathetic they are," Republican frontrunner Donald Trump told rallies on Monday, about the alliance his rivals, Senator Ted Cruz and Governor John Kasich have stitched up to stop him.
He has reasons to be happy. Whether or not the Kasich-Cruz tie-up showed how “pathetic” they were, the durability of that newfound love was in question within hours after it was announced. Asked whether he was telling his supporters in Indiana to vote for Mr Cruz as part of the deal, Mr Kasich said on Tuesday morning, “I am not telling anyone, anything in Indiana. Because I am not campaigning in Indiana. That is what the deal is.” Mr Kasich will, however, participate in a fund-raising event in the state that he has conceded to Mr Cruz as part of the deal. Mr Kasich had earlier said his supporters “ought to vote for him.”
Meanwhile, Mr Trump looked poised to win big in five northeastern states on Tuesday and moving closer to the halfway mark to win the nomination.
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Though a consolidation of all anti-Trump forces could lead to his defeat in theory that is not how the race has progressed so far. When Mr Trump was one of the 17 candidates in the race in the beginning and was polling less than 30 per cent, many believed that as the field gets narrower, his chances would dim. But that is not how it happened. As candidates dropped out one after another, many of their supporters shifted to Mr Trump rather than going by what the candidates wished. As polarisation has become sharper, Mr Trump has mopped up more support.
The Kasich-Cruz tie-up, weak and wobbling as it is, also gives a major fillip to Mr Trump’s campaign narrative — that he represents the interests of the people, and this is a fight that pitches him against everyone else. He has said the “rigged system” is trying to stop him; and now has termed the coalition against him a “collusion.”