Victory in the morning

Trump loves the smell of victory in the morning

By Nick Gass

Donald Trump was fired up and ready to go on Wednesday morning.

Only hours after he swept five mid-Atlantic and New England states, Trump hit the airwaves, pounding home the message that it’s time for his rivals to drop out, while weighing in discursively on everything from his sleeping habits to Hillary Clinton’s “shouting.”

From CNN to MSNBC to ABC to Fox News, the famously sleep-deprived Manhattan real-estate mogul flexed his media muscle in triumph.

Shortly after 6 a.m., a drowsy-sounding Trump called into CNN's "New Day," where he at once celebrated his victories, ripped into "lyin' Ted" Cruz and John Kasich, turned his attention toward Clinton and reassured the world that he would keep being himself.

"You know, lyin' Ted is lyin' Ted. He's one of a kind. He can lie better than any human being I've ever seen, but ultimately he's not successful. I've actually never seen anything quite like it. We had a great victory and far more than we thought. Far more than your network estimated, and now we're up to close to 1,000, and we have a long way to go," Trump said, referring to his overall pledged delegate count.

Trump also expressed confidence that his campaign will "do great" in California, citing a "big lead," as well as in Indiana.

"You sound pretty beat this morning," CNN anchor Chris Cuomo remarked.

"No, I'm not beat. I did get up a little bit early to do your show. I want to— you asked me to do it and I'm doing it," Trump said. "But I was up late last night, I will say that. We're all celebrate -- you know, we celebrate and then we go back to work, but we're doing your show, and that's an honor."

After wrapping up that interview, the panelists of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" hosted Trump for an interview that ran for nearly 30 minutes, one in which the self-declared presumptive Republican nominee began to get more characteristically animated.

"He's going to sound more presidential. Sound presidential for us," co-host Joe Scarborough said. (Earlier in the show, Scarborough ripped into pundits as "fools" who kept repeating that Trump had a ceiling and that he would collapse as more candidates left the race.)

Trump responded, "I get more and more presidential as I have victories. Absolutely."

"Sounds like he's lying in bed," co-host Mika Brzezinski remarked.

"No, I'm not," a tired-sounding Trump said, going on to say that Cruz and Kasich should have already left the race and calling upon the Republican Party to unify behind his candidacy.

One of those reasons: money.

"I have a lot of friends who want to give a lot of money to the Republican Party. We're not going to do it until they find out whether or not I win," he said. "I have friends that will give tremendous amounts of money to the Republican Party."

In all of his appearances, Trump laid into Clinton, doubling down on his claim that the sole reason for her success is because she is playing the "woman card," after Clinton herself repeated her "deal me in" line to a raucous crowd in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

Remarking that he was still "recovering" from Clinton's "shouting," an increasingly high-energy Trump remarked, "I know a lot of people would say you can't say that about a woman, because of course a woman doesn't shout."

"The way she shouted that message was not -- that's the way she said it, and I guess I'll have to get used to a lot of that over the next four or five months," he told MSNBC.

Trump went on to say that he would likely use some lines from Bernie Sanders, Clinton's increasingly longshot Democratic opponent, in a general election contest.

"Many wish she shouldn't be there. He said some things about her that are actually surprising. That essentially she has no right to even be running. She's got bad judgment. When he said bad judgment, I said sound bite," Trump said, in reference to an April 10 interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" in which Sanders conceded that while Clinton had the proper experience to be president, her judgment is lacking.

Reiterating that Sanders "should run as an independent," Trump said that the Vermont senator "has been treated very badly by the Democrats and the Democratic Party."

After MSNBC, Trump took to ABC's "Good Morning America," where co-anchor George Stephanopoulos struggled to get in a word edgewise as he attempted to ask him a final question to wrap the shorter interview segment.

In that call, Trump slammed Cruz's consideration of Carly Fiorina as his running mate, "not because she's a woman, but Carly did not resonate at all with people."

"If you'll remember, remember we had so many — we had so many candidates ahead of us on that stage but she had the one good debate. She went up, then she dropped like a rock and never resonated with the people. So, I mean, Carly is not going to do the trick," Trump said.

Trump had kind words for Carly personally, saying he likes her and that she was "by the end ... an insignificant player." What's more, Trump added, is that Cruz is "wasting his time" because he is so far behind him in the popular vote and delegate count that he will never be the Republican nominee.

"Ridiculous" is how Trump described Cruz's vetting of Fiorina on "Fox & Friends," his final destination, where he claimed to have not really celebrated his victories.

"Well, I was up early this morning. I did a couple of shows. But yours has to always be in that list, otherwise, I would be in big trouble with you folks and that would not be a pleasant day," Trump said, referring to Fox News.

Pressed by co-host Steve Doocy on how he marked the night, Trump replied, "I didn't really celebrate. You know, I like to celebrate when things are over. We're just about there."

Those who are supporting Cruz, Trump predicted, would unite behind him after being read a viewer's question about how he would attract Cruz Republicans.

"I know that my supporters will never cast a vote for him, but his will cast a vote for me. We're already seeing it. Let's say I averaged over 60 percent in five states, very diverse states," Trump said. "A lot of the people were Cruz supporters previously. Because before they were talking about he didn't break 50. It's hard to break 50 when you have eight people running. I never get -- I tried to make a big point of that last night. But I watched my first pundit show this morning before you went on. I saw they didn't cover it again. It's amazing. They don't talk about it."

As that interview wrapped, Trump again ripped into Clinton for playing the "woman's card," and Doocy mentioned his event later Wednesday in Indianapolis with legendary college basketball coach Bobby Knight.

Co-host Ainsley Earhardt thanked Trump for calling in, reminding viewers that the show had invited all candidates to join them this morning. (Trump was the only candidate on any of the morning shows.)

Trump replied, "I think the other candidates are too depressed."