Indiana

Donald Trump all but secured the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday with a decisive win in Indiana. The businessman from New York is now recognized as the party’s nominee for President of the United States after his main Republican rival Ted Cruz suffered a crushing defeat and suspended his campaign. Trump won the Republican vote but in the upcoming U.S. presidential election for him to win the White House he has to deal with a whole spectrum of voters. Evidence suggests that he is in for a crushing defeat come November. The Conversation report:  President Trump?

With the polls in eastern Indiana closed (the last polls in the western part of the state are open until 7pm Eastern), the first results come in, and in early counting of the available votes, Trump has a daunting 53% lead over Cruz's 33% and Kasich at 11%, while Hillary leads Bernie Sanders 58% to 43%.

If Trump's 50%+ lead remains largely unchallenged, it is difficult to see how the New York real estate billionaire will fail to accumulate the required threshold of votes before the Republican convention in July.

Developing

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Update: *PAUL RYAN SAYS TRUMP WILL BE NOMINEE IF HE WINS INDIANA: CNBC

Today's primary in the Hoosier State could prove to be the last stand for Ted Cruz and John Kasich, as The Donald looks to deliver the final knockout blow to the two challengers. If Trump wins, it certainly would be an embarrassment for a GOP establishment that has literally done everything it can to stop Trump, most recently touting the Cruz/Kasich alliance that self-destructed just hours after it was announced.

The pressure of tonight's "must-win" Indiana primary appears to have gotten to Ted Cruz who one week after being hailed as Lucifer and a "son of a bitch" by John Boehner, exploded in an epic anti-Trump rant of his own, calling the republican frontrunner "an utterly amoral, narcissist," a "serial philanderer" and a "pathological liar."

As The Hill adds, Cruz prefaced his comments by saying that for the first time, he wanted to say exactly what he though of Trump after the GOP frontrunner suggested his father might have had something to do with the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Heidi Cruz dropped a bombshell during an Indiana campaign trail on Saturday, saying that her husband Senator Ted Cruz “is an immigrant”.  “Ted is an immigrant. He is Hispanic,” Heidi Cruz said of her husband, an American citizen who renounced his Canadian citizenship even though he was born north of the American border. “He can unify this party.” “We have libertarians joining our cause. I have people every day from the Democrat Party telling me that they re-registered to vote for Ted as a Republican.