From his Palm Beach, Florida Xanadu, Mar-a-Lago, Trump spoke about his victory in the state — with his embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski at his right and his son Eric Trump at his left.
Trump and Lewandowski pulled off a near sweep of Tuesday's primaries and caucuses — winning Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, and the Northern Mariana Islands, while Ohio's governor John Kasich won his home state.
"Good job Corey," Trump said, "and Hope (his spokesperson Hope Hicks) and our whole squad."
Lewandowski has been accused by former Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields of roughly grabbing her while she tried to ask Trump a question, leaving bruises. Fields and Breitbart editor-at-large Ben Shapiro left the site, criticizing it for being a partisan pro-Trump outlet. Trump has suggested Fields was making the story up, while Lewandowski called her "delusional." Fields filed a police report that alleges Lewandowski assaulted her. Some viewers took notice of Lewandowski's appearance on Trump's stage.
Lewandowski on stage after manhandling a reporter, lying about it, & smearing her. Score another for lowered standards. #goodjobCorey
The guy accused of manhandling a female reporter sure liked it when Trump said reporters are "disgusting people"
Otherwise, Trump gave a version of his standard stump speech, lambasting trade deals, talking about his poll numbers, and promising to win for America.
"More importantly than anything else we’re going to start winning again, this country doesn’t win anymore, we don’t win with our military, we don’t win with trade."
The only other candidate Trump acknowledged was Florida senator Marco Rubio, who suspended his campaign following Trump's Florida victory. "I want to congratulate Marco Rubio on having run a really tough campaign. He’s tough and smart and he has a really great future."
Despite establishing and maintaining a solid lead in all polls, Trump depicted his victory in Florida as having come in the face of a wave of negative advertising that "no one has ever in the history of politics has received." Trump said that the ads were "90% false, vicious and horrible."
He even said that he was imploring guests at a recent golf tournament at the Trump National Doral in Doral, Florida to look away from the TV, knowing they would be faced with negative ads. "Look over there, don’t watch this! Isn’t the grass beautiful?" he recounted telling his guests.
Trump lambasted reporters, saying there were "some really disgusting people back there," and lamenting that he had to deal with "lies, deceits, viciousness, disgusting reporters."
However, he assured his guests: "We’re going to win for the country. We’re going to win and we’re not stopping thank you very much everybody."