Trump set to stand as Republican president nominee

But the footage is unlikely to affect Trump’s state of mind too much, as he enjoys his moment of victory – buoyed by the support of some political heavyweights.

Ed Rollins, Ronald Reagan’s former campaign manager for his 1984 landslide win, has come out in support of Trump’s presidential bid.

Mr Rollins, a veteran operative who also served as campaign chairman to Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, during his 2008 presidential bid, will serve as a top strategist to get Trump elected.

He also was Ross Perot’s co-campaign manager for his failed 1992 bid and for a time served as campaign manager for Michele Bachmann during her 2012 campaign.

Meanwhile Bobby Jindal, the former governor of Louisiana, says he will support and vote for Mr Trump, in a massive departure from his critical comments earlier on in the billionaire’s campaign.

In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday night, Mr Jindal said: “I would encourage all those conservatives and Republicans out there, we’ve had eight, now it’s almost eight awful years under President Obama. We can’t afford four more years under Hillary Clinton.”

Mr Cruz announced in Indianapolis that he would suspend his campaign, calling on Republicans to unite to fight the presidential election. He no longer had a credible chance, he said, to win the nomination.

“We gave it everything we got, but the voters chose another path . . . With a heavy heart and with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our country we are suspending our campaign.”

The chief strategist for John Kasich, the other remaining Republican candidate, vowed that his campaign would continue but the Ohio governor stands no chance of reaching the 1,237 delegates he needs to become he nominee. Mr Kasich will now come under immense pressure to leave the field clear for Mr Trump.

With votes still being counted, the Democratic battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders was too close to call. Mr Sanders desperately needed a landslide victory. A strong win appeared to have eluded him, meaning that he would split the state’s delegates with Mrs Clinton, preserving her overall lead.

In his first response to the victory in Indiana, Mr Trump showed little sign of magnanimity. “Lyin’ Ted Cruz consistently said that he will, and must, win Indiana,” the tycoon tweeted.

“He should drop out of the race — stop wasting time & money.”

Even before Indiana had its say, nine out of ten voters thought that Mr Trump’s progress to the nomination was inevitable. Already, thoughts have turned to how he will campaign against Mrs Clinton — and whether one of the wealthiest politicians in history will be undone by, of all things, a lack of cash.

No candidate has ever trumpeted their wealth more loudly than Mr Trump but his campaign appears to be edging towards a funding crisis. He has raised only $12 million, a sum eclipsed by the $256 million drawn in by Mrs Clinton, and a fraction of the projected $1 billion cost of a presidential run.

Indeed, so lacklustre has his fundraising been, Republican insiders believe that he is on course to become the first presidential candidate since John McCain in 2008 to turn to the ¬government to pay for his campaign.

While Mr Trump has made a virtue of his financial independence — he often reminds voters “I’m really rich” — Republican grandees fear that he risks being badly outgunned.

They say that his divisive rhetoric has alienated large donors and he is yet to co-ordinate with the Republican ¬finance team, usually a key weapon in a candidate’s arsenal.

Some predict that Republican funds will be channelled away from the presidential race and towards senate and congressional candidates instead as donors scramble to defend the party’s majorities in each legislative chamber.

“By this point in 2012 Mitt Romney had been cultivating a national finance network for years,” Katie Packer, a Republican strategist who has led a campaign against Mr Trump, said. “Trump has no such network. Mitt Romney had been raising money with the Republican national committee for months. Trump has done no such thing. So no, I don’t think he can raise the money.”

When that critique was put to Mr Trump by The Times, he said: “And Mr Romney lost a race he should have won. I will win.”

Mr Trump has become adept at cutting down rivals with pithy insults on Twitter. So far, he has benefited from a large Republican field, deep divisions in his party and voter turnouts that are much smaller and more conservative than the November electorate.

“All of this will come to an end in the autumn,” Larry Sabato, of the University of Virginia, said. “Trump needs to spend heavily . . . and loads of Republican donors will be sitting out the race.”

Mr Trump claims to be worth $10 billion but independent analysts put his fortune closer to $4 billion. His liquid assets are estimated at about $300 million, well short of the $1.25 billion that Mr Romney spent in 2012.

If he were to turn to government funding he would get $96 million but would be barred any other fundraising and would be allowed to spend only an additional $50,000 of his own fortune.

Stuart Stevens, who ran Mr Romney’s campaign in 2012, disputed the idea that the tycoon had run a brilliantly frugal campaign.

China has urged the American people to take a rational and objective view of the relationship between the two countries, after Mr Trump became the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.

The tycoon has proposed that tariffs on imported Chinese goods be increased to up to 45 per cent and asserted that China had waged “economic war” against the US, taking American jobs.