Hounded by protests, Trump surges as Cruz scrambles

With Donald Trump on an increasingly credible path to victory, his chief rival in the Republican presidential nomination race, Ted Cruz, fought back Friday in Indiana, the next primary battleground.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the California Republican Party Convention on Apr 29, 2016 in Burlingame, California. (Photo: Ramin Talaie/Getty Images/AFP)

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz and his running mate, former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina, speak with the media on Apr 29, 2016 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo: AFP/Joe Raedle(

A protester holds up a sign against US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Burlingame, California, on Apr 29, 2016. (Photo: AFP/Josh Edelson)

BURLINGAME, United States: Hundreds of protesters faced off with police on Friday (Apr 29) at a California hotel where Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was giving a speech, as tensions intensified ahead of the next key primaries.

The second straight day of tumult could foreshadow what awaits in the run-up to Jun 7, when California - the most populous US state - votes.

That primary could mark the point at which the bombastic 69-year-old billionaire clinches the number of delegates he needs to win the Republican party's nomination.

Demonstrators - some holding anti-Trump signs, waving Mexican flags and jostling with police in riot gear - clambered over barricades and blocked multiple entrances to the hotel a few miles from the San Francisco airport.
Trump halted his motorcade along a highway and, surrounded by Secret Service, climbed an embankment and ducked into a side entrance to give protesters the slip. The extraordinary images were broadcast live on US cable television.

"That was not the easiest entrance I've ever made," Trump quipped as he took the stage after a one-hour delay at the California Republican Party Convention. "It felt like I was crossing the border."

California, the state with the largest Hispanic population, is crucial in Trump's push, and his harsh immigration stance and vow to "build a wall" along the Mexico border is likely to figure prominently.
Of more immediate concern is winner-take-all Indiana which votes next Tuesday, and could be a dramatic showdown with rival Ted Cruz, who hopes the Midwestern state will act as a Trump firewall.
With the Hoosier State suddenly under a political microscope, Indiana's Republican Governor Mike Pence took to a local radio station Friday to offer a lukewarm endorsement. "I'm not against anyone, but I will be voting for Ted Cruz," Pence said.
The governor, however, commended Trump for rallying grassroots voters furious with Washington, and said he would "work my heart out" for "whoever" becomes the Republican standard-bearer and faces likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on Nov 8.

Police officers push down barricades used by a group protesting Donald Trump outside of the Hyatt Regency hotel. (Photo: AP/Eric Risberg)

'COMMON SENSE'
Trump has beamed with confidence at his Indiana rallies. "If we win Indiana, it's over," Trump proclaimed in Evansville on Thursday.
Cruz, appearing in Indiana alongside his newly announced vice presidential pick Carly Fiorina, said on Friday he was confident that "Midwestern common sense" would prevail and the state would tilt his way.
After Trump swept all five states that held primaries on Tuesday, the nomination landscape suddenly favours the real estate mogul. But the reality that Indiana and California are even factors in the race is evidence of how the GOP battle is going down to the wire.
Ahead of Friday's unrest, tensions also boiled over Thursday at a Trump rally in Costa Mesa, California. Protests at the event turned violent, as hundreds of demonstrators clashed with police, hurled rocks and smashed a police car window. Police reported some 20 arrests.
The debate over Trump was now focused on whether he can win a majority of the 2,472 delegates who choose the nominee at the Republican convention in July. Should he reach the magic number of 1,237, the nomination is his because nearly all delegates are bound to vote for their candidate in the first round.
Cruz, a conservative US senator from Texas, has run circles around Trump in wooing convention delegates in the event there is no first-round winner. If Trump falls short before the convention, Cruz hopes to snatch the nomination on a second ballot when most delegates become free to vote for whomever they choose.
Former candidate Jeb Bush, who has endorsed Cruz, acknowledged Trump is "close" to reaching the threshold. But "if he doesn't get to 50 per cent, he might have problems garnering the delegates" at the convention, Bush told CNN.

Trump remained bullish, relishing that he has passed the 1,000-delegate mark, with 10 of the 50 US states yet to vote. "As of today, we have 1,001," he told the California Republicans.

Cruz stands at 572 delegates, with third-place John Kasich at 157, according to the CNN tally.

Of the remaining 502 delegates up for grabs, Trump needs 47 per cent. If he maintains the same level of voter support in the remaining contests he has had in recent weeks, victory is assured.

"I think he can likely get to 1,237," Christine Barbour, a professor of American politics of Indiana University at Bloomington, said of Trump. "I'd say they (Cruz and Kasich) are in for the duration and we won't know anything until California."

A New York Times projection says Trump will probably secure as many as 1,289 delegates, including 154 of California's huge trove of 172.

- AFP/ec