Donald Trump: old habits die hard

Old habits die hard. It’s even more so for Republican Donald Trump who for a moment forgot his makeover lessons and lunged for his presidential rivals, Governor John Kasich and  senator Ted Cruz.

Showing no sign of trying to unify Republicans around him with a more serious demeanour, Trump ripped Kasich for refusing to get out of the race and even criticized his eating habits.

“This is just a guy who’s a stubborn guy, who eats like a slob and shouldn’t have press conferences while he’s stuffing stuff down his throat,” Trump said.

On Cruz, Trump said he has done a “lousy job” in the Senate and has shown that he “cannot build consensus.”

Trump spoke on Monday on the eve of primary elections in five states that he is expected to sweep.

His criticism of rivals followed the alliance  between them  aimed at denying Trump  the party’s presidential nomination.

The Cruz-Kasich agreement, which some stop-Trump Republican strategists say should have been undertaken weeks ago, was forged to try and keep Trump from securing the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the nomination outright and force Republicans to consider the two rivals at the party’s national convention in Cleveland in July.

Kasich, the Ohio governor, and Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, agreed not to compete against each other in three upcoming nominating contests that could prove to be pivotal: Indiana, Oregon and New Mexico.

Trump, speaking at Pennsylvania’s West Chester University, near Philadelphia, dismissed the deal as a sign of desperation and predicted he still would win the nomination on the convention’s first ballot.

With dramatic flair, he compared his plight to a champion boxer whom Trump said he once warned not to go into unfriendly territory because the judges could rule against him.

The boxer, Trump said, replied: “If I knock him out there’s not a damn thing the judges can do.”

Trump is expected to win all five of Tuesday’s nominating contests in the northeastern states of Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware and Maryland, which have a total of 172 delegates at stake.

Trump is already ahead in the delegate race with 845, followed by Cruz with 559 and Kasich with 147, according to the Associated Press.

After Tuesday, Indiana, which votes on May 3, will be the next big battleground, with 57 delegates up for grabs.