Trump predicts ‘riots’ if he’s not nominee

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump predicted on Wednesday that there would be “riots” if he does not secure the GOP nomination, given his lead among delegates.

“Once the battle is over, once the war is over, I think there really is a natural healing process,” Trump said on CNN’s “New Day,” pointing to his business record. “I’ve gotten along very well with people.”

“I think we’ll win before getting to the convention. And if we’re 20 votes short or if we’re 100 short and we’re at 1,100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400 … I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically.”

“I think you’d have riots,” Trump continued. “I’m representing … many, many millions of people, in many cases first-time voters.”

“I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen,” Trump predicted, adding later, “After we win, I think a lot of feelings will be soothed.”

Despite a strong performance Tuesday night in which he won several states and extended his delegate count, Trump is unlikely to finish with enough delegates to reach the 1,237 threshold before the party’s convention in July.

If Trump continues to win at the pace he is now, he’d fall more than 100 delegates short, allowing rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich to make a play for the nomination at a contested convention.

Cruz has predicted that he’d win the 1,237 delegates needed before the convention, and he currently places second in the overall delegate count, hoping to benefit from Marco Rubio’s exit from the race Tuesday night.