A confident Trump looks past Indiana

CARMEL, Ind. — Indiana was supposed to be the state that could potentially derail Donald Trump’s insurgent bid for the Republican presidential nomination. But on Monday afternoon, the New York real estate mogul bounded onstage at a concert hall here in the Indianapolis suburbs, looking like a man on the brink of yet another major victory.

Speaking to a capacity crowd of nearly 1,800 people, Trump, with his characteristic bravado, touted his six straight primary wins — and predicted he would easily claim yet another, pointing to polls that show him with a wide lead in Indiana heading into Tuesday’s vote. He unabashedly bragged to voters about how a guy like him — someone, he said, who had been in politics for under a year — had easily vanquished some of the Republican Party’s best and brightest.

“Boom, boom, boom — we’re knocking them out like corn flakes,” Trump declared.

And he was about to do it again, Trump confidently predicted, suggesting if Texas Sen. Ted Cruz comes up short in Indiana, the race is effectively finished. “If we win in Indiana, it’s over,” the real estate mogul declared. “They’re gone,” he added, referring to Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, his final two rivals in the race.

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Donald Trump campaigns Monday in Carmel, Ind. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

While Indiana’s 57 delegates still won’t give Trump the 1,237 he needs to clinch the GOP nomination, the Republican frontrunner has already started to move on, looking toward November and his likely Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. In recent days, Trump has focused his off-the-cuff stump speech as much on Clinton as he has Cruz and Kasich, signaling a readiness to move past the primary.

Trump has already branded Clinton with a taunting nickname: “Crooked Hillary.” But on Monday, he added another line to his succinct line of attack, repeatedly describing the former secretary of state as someone with “bad judgment.”

“Emails, bad judgment. Iraq, voted yes, bad judgment. Libya, bad judgment. All bad judgment,” the Republican frontrunner declared, adding that he wasn’t the first person to say so. He pointedly credited the attack to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s Democratic primary rival, whom he’s praised in recent days.

“Bad judgment. I didn’t say it,” Trump said. “A lot of people said it. … It was said by Bernie. I can’t take any heat if it was said by Bernie.”

But Trump wasn’t just trying out new lines of attack against Clinton. Just before he kicked off his final hours of campaigning in the Hoosier State, Trump and two of his top aides — campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and social media director Dan Scavino — made an unannounced stop at a local deli in Indianapolis, where they had lunch with Edward Klein, the author of several books that have reported on salacious rumors about Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

SLIDESHOW – Indiana, the next battleground >>>

The Trump campaign invited a small pool of reporters to cover the Republican candidate’s visit to the deli — allowing them to photograph Trump and his aides with Klein. It was unclear what the foursome discussed, but Trump told reporters he was starting to focus more on Clinton, a line he later repeated to supporters at his rally in Carmel.

“Folks, I haven’t even started yet,” Trump said of going after Clinton. “It’s going to be so easy. It’s going to be so great.”

On Sunday, Trump also dangled a carrot in front of Republicans who have hesitated about backing his bid for the nomination, insisting he wants the primary to be over so that he can start raising money for the party — including House and Senate races. That’s a big commitment from Trump, who is primarily funding his campaign with his own money and who has repeatedly trashed the GOP as being too beholden to political donors and other special interests.

But even as Trump signaled more of a focus on November, the GOP frontrunner couldn’t resist getting in a last few digs at Cruz in the final hours of the Indiana campaign. On Monday, the real estate mogul repeated virtually every attack he’s ever launched at Cruz, including the suggestion that because the Texas senator was born in Canada he can’t be president and the nickname of “Lyin’ Ted” that Trump gave Cruz for launching dishonest attacks.

Trump even brought up an unusual incident on Sunday, after Carly Fiorina, Cruz’s running mate, fell off a stage while campaigning. The video of the incident went viral on Monday.

“She fell off the stage the other day. Did anybody see that?” Trump said. “And Cruz didn’t help her.” Hinting at his complicated history with Fiorina, an ex-rival with whom he repeatedly sparred before she ended her bid for the nomination, Trump added, “Even I would’ve helped her. … She went down right in front of him, and he just kept talking.”