Declares himself presumptive GOP nominee after Indiana win

After winning the Indiana Republican primary by a wide margin and prompting Ted Cruz to suspend his campaign, Trump delivered a victory speech in which he declared himself the party’s "presumptive nominee" and talked about unifying Republicans who had spent months warning he was unfit for office. He praised Cruz as a "tough" competitor even as his campaign continued to circulate attacks, and he framed his win as a repudiation of elites who had tried to stop him. While the speech contained fewer overt lies than his usual rallies, it marked an inflection point in his 2016 rise: the moment when he claimed de facto control of the GOP despite ongoing internal resistance, setting the stage for later efforts to demand loyalty and portray any dissent as betrayal.

"We’re going to unify our party and we’re going to unify our country, and we’re going to make America great again." — Indiana primary victory speech on May 3, 2016, after Trump’s decisive win and Cruz’s decision to suspend his campaign, as he declared himself the presumptive Republican nominee and promised to unify the party behind him