Donald Trump declares victory in Michigan and Mississippi, attacks friends, rivals, and China

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last updated 9 March 2016

At a Trump golf course in Jupiter, Florida, on Tuesday night, Donald Trump declared victory in the Michigan and Mississippi primaries in a wide-ranging and idiosyncratic speech and press conference. He started with the Republican efforts to block his path to the nomination. "I don't think I've ever had so many horrible, horrible things said about me in one week," he said, then jokingly thanked "the special interests and the lobbyists" for attacking him and angering his base. Many of the lobbyists and insiders are his friends, the casino magnate said, but "they just have to gamble — they just have to do it."

Trump then turned his ire on Mitt Romney, saying Romeny's speech hitting Trump as a fraudulent business failure just "wasn't becoming, honestly." To prove his point, he said that many of the businesses Romney had said folded were alive and well, hawking them one by one. He even promised to restart Trump University "as soon as the lawsuits are settled."

Trump reprised his attacks against "Little Marco" Rubio — "see, hostility works for some people," Trump said, "it doesn't work for everyone" — "nasty" Lindsey Graham, and especially "Lying Ted" Cruz, now his main rival for the GOP nomination. Cruz claims he's the only one who has beaten the GOP frontrunner, Trump said, "but he never beats me. Take a look, he never beats me — meaning he rarely beats me." Trumps predicted that he will beat Democrat Hillary Clinton easily in November, citing the record GOP turnout in primaries and his strength in Upstate New York.

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In the press conference, Trump blamed America's loss of manufacturing jobs on China and other countries devaluing their currencies, called the conservative critics who disagree with him "eggheads" with no common sense, acknowledged that one of the secrets to his success is discerning frugality — "people say I don't pay bills — I don't pay bills if it wasn't a job well done" — and tried to dispel fears that he would be an embarrassment to America. "If I want to, I can be more presidential than anybody," Trump said, "more presidential than anybody other than the great Abe Lincoln — he was very presidential."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.