PALM BEACH, Fla.—Former President Donald Trump began his March 5 victory speech by saying: “They call it Super Tuesday for a reason; this is a big one.”
By the time President Trump began his remarks around 10:15 p.m. ET, he had racked up wins in 11 of the 15 states that held Republican presidential preference contests on Super Tuesday. He would later go on to win three more races.
He said pundits and others had told him that these victories were unprecedented.
“There’s never been anything so conclusive,” he said, adding, ‘It’s been an amazing night.”
The former president spent about 20 minutes speaking to hundreds of supporters who gathered to celebrate with him in the Grand Ballroom of the Mar-a-Lago Club and Resort. He has made Mar-a-Lago, formerly the “Winter White House” during his first presidency, 2017-2021, his permanent residence.
As Mar-a-Lago partygoers awaited President Trump for several hours, they watched news coverage showing win after win; each time, the Trump campaign would add a graphic heralding the victory on TV screens, eliciting a big cheer from the crowd.
His lone remaining Republican rival, Nikki Haley, was declared the projected winner in Vermont, marking her second primary win of the 2024 season.
President Trump’s Super Tuesday triumph came a day after the Supreme Court handed him a win, ruling that he must stay on the ballot in Colorado. The justices unanimously found that states lack the authority to disqualify candidates under the 14th Amendment. The former president went on to win Colorado and its 20 delegates on Super Tuesday.
Now in the thick of his campaign seeking a second term, President Trump is on track to unofficially clinch the Republican presidential nomination before month’s end; he needs 1,215 delegates in his corner. The delegates will make the nomination official at the Republican National Convention this summer.
‘Incredible’ Energy for Trump
At Mar-a-Lago on March 5, several surrogates and supporters of President Trump told The Epoch Times about the trends and issues that are fueling the race.Leo Terrell, a black civil rights attorney who switched from Democrat to a self-proclaimed “Trump Republican,” said: “America wants Donald Trump. Nikki Haley should do the best thing and drop out of the race. If the election was held today, President Trump would win in a landslide.”
Ms. Haley’s campaign on Tuesday night responded to Team Trump’s calls for her to drop out of the race, citing the need for Republicans to unify.
“Unity is not achieved by simply claiming we’re united,” said Olivia Perez-Cubas, a spokeswoman with the Haley campaign.
“Today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump. That is not the unity our party needs for success.”
Bruce LeVell, President Trump’s national diversity coordinator, gestured to the bustling ballroom filled with happy chatter and shouted above the din: “Look around; I see the same kind of adrenaline and momentum that I saw in 2015 … The energy is incredible.”
The former president launched into his remarks as the crowd was chanting, “USA! USA!” At various points, the audience also chanted, “Four More Years” and “Trump, Trump, Trump!”
Karoline Leavitt, President Trump’s press secretary, said “an avalanche of delegates” materialized as predicted on Super Tuesday. “For the president, this is one more pivotal step on his way to becoming the official Republican nominee,” she told The Epoch Times.
The campaign is focused on continuing to draw contrasts between President Trump and President Biden, she said.
During his Mar-a-Lago remarks, President Trump adhered to that plan. He made no mention of Ms. Haley’s name. Instead, he described problems that he blames on President Biden, including the wars in Ukraine and Israel, the border crisis, and inflation. President Trump pledged to steady the ship on all of those fronts.
Asked to name the biggest challenge confronting President Trump, Ms. Leavitt said, “There’s a lot of challenges when you’re up against the corrupt media, when you’re up against the entire establishment, when the entire justice department is being weaponized against you.”
Facing all of that takes great courage, she said, and President Trump “wakes up every day ready to fight for this great country.”
Another Mar-a-Lago attendee, Christina Bobb, a lawyer at Save America who works on election issues, said legal matters confronting the former president are complex. But she also said the cases, for her, all boil down to something simple: “I don’t think that Donald Trump has done anything wrong.”
She also thinks many Americans see that the justice system has been weaponized by the Biden administration against his chief political opponent.
Different State, Same Concerns
Similar concerns were echoed in states such as Maine, which is fairly evenly divided among liberals, conservatives, and independents.Some people in Maine say they see more people willing to vote for President Trump in the general election as they become increasingly upset over President Biden’s handling of the economy and immigration issues.
Marcayla Amadei, a political consultant and organizer in Portland, told The Epoch Times that “culture-war issues” aside, progressives and conservatives alike are feeling the same frustration over inflation, which is causing high prices for just about everything, ranging from gasoline to groceries and housing.
“Young people ... can’t even find affordable studio apartments,” she said. “They’re building apartments for migrants, but we feel we’re getting spit in the face.”
President Trump won the state of Maine and its 20 delegates.
Special Occasion
Heading into Super Tuesday, President Trump had won nine out of 10 early presidential contests in states ranging from New Hampshire to Nevada.Ms. Haley won the District of Columbia on March 3. But the district’s 19 delegates didn’t put a dent in the seemingly insurmountable lead that the former president has amassed over the former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor.
Florida is not among the Super Tuesday states. But signifying the importance of Super Tuesday, the biggest election day of the year other than Election Day in November, President Trump chose to host his watch party in Mar-a-Lago’s Grand Ballroom, which is normally reserved for special occasions only, he stated in a recent speech.
