Trump touts primary wins in Florida and key primary states

U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Tuesday (March 15) thanked his family and supporters as he celebrated wins in several key state primaries.

Trump, flanked by his adult sons, thanked his family and congratulated rival candidate Senator Marco Rubio, who came in a distant second in his home state, a result that prompted his to drop out of the race.

“I have to say that number one I want to congratulate Marco Rubio on having run a really tough campaign. He’s tough, he’s smart, and he’s got a great future. He’s got a great future,” Trump said.

“I want to thank my family – my boy Eric, and Don – they’ve worked so hard. Ivanka and Jared, have been amazing. Ivanka’s home right now. In about two minutes I’ll call her and she’s about ready to have a baby,” he said.

Trump emphasized the importance of repairing damage done to the Republican party which has been badly fractured during the raucous election season. Trump’s vows to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, impose protectionist trade policies and temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country have rattled the party’s mainstream leaders and left them scrambling to block him.

He said he had recently talked to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the U.S. House Paul Ryan.

“We have to bring our party together. We have to bring it together. We have, we have something happening that actually makes the Republican Party probably the biggest political story anywhere in the world. Everybody’s writing about it, all over Europe, all over the world they’re talking about it. Millions of people are coming in to vote,” he said.

Trump said he was rising to the challenge of a grueling campaign.

“So again I just want to congratulate everybody. This is a really interesting process it’s an amazing process. It’s very tough. But it is, by the end – if you get to the end – you can handle a lot of things, including pressure. That I can tell you, because there’s nothing like it: lies, deceit, viciousness, disgusting reporters, horrible people. Some are nice. Some are not. Some really disgusting people back there. And I just want to say we’re going to go forward and we’re going to win. But more importantly we’re going to win for the country. We’re going to win, win, win, and we’re not stopping. We’re going to have great victories for our country,” he said.

Trump, who hoped a sweep of five states would put him on the path to the nomination, but lost Ohio and now faces a three-way struggle with Ohio Governor John Kasich and Ted Cruz, a conservative U.S. senator from Texas, that could lead to a showdown at the party’s convention in Cleveland in July.