Attacks Cruz–Kasich anti-Trump pact as potentially illegal “collusion”

On April 25, 2016, after the Cruz and Kasich campaigns announced a coordinated plan to divide up remaining primary states to try to block him from the nomination, Trump blasted the agreement as “collusion” that would be illegal in other industries and suggested it showed “everything that is wrong in Washington.” In a written statement and follow-up comments, he portrayed a routine strategic alliance as something that might violate the law, cast his two rivals as “weak” Washington insiders, and folded the deal into his broader argument that the Republican primary system was corrupt and stacked against him. By implying that basic campaign coordination was unlawful and part of a “rigged” system, he again primed his supporters to see ordinary checks on his power as proof of cheating rather than normal politics (see 2016-02-01_to_2016-02-07, 2016-03-14_to_2016-03-20, 2016-04-04_to_2016-04-10, and 2016-04-18_to_2016-04-24).

"Collusion is often illegal in many other industries, and yet these two Washington insiders have had to revert to collusion in order to stay alive." — April 25, 2016 response to the Cruz–Kasich coordination plan, released as a campaign statement and echoed in interviews as he argued that their anti-Trump pact was an example of corrupt “collusion” in a rigged system