Donald Trump has to get used to the hard ball being played in the race for the GOP presidential nomination if he hopes to make it to the White House, veteran political commentator Michael Reagan tells Newsmax TV.

Trump has been on the warpath since Sen. Ted Cruz waltzed away with Colorado’s GOP delegates, which because of a party rule change, occurred without a popular vote. The Republican front-runner called the nominating process a “crooked system.” And his adviser Paul Manafort said Cruz is guilty of “Gestapo tactics.”

But Reagan, son of President Ronald Reagan, told J.D. Hayworth in an interview Wednesday on Newsmax Prime:

“Welcome to politics! … If you’re going to be president of the United States of America, [Russian president] Vladimir Putin’s not going to play footsie with you. It’s going to be a hard ballgame. In the world of foreign affairs, it is hard ball. In the world of domestic politics, it is hard ball.

“And if you’re not ready to play hard ball, then get out of the game. I mean that’s really what’s going on. Donald Trump just doesn’t like the fact that now in some areas of the arena he is losing and he is losing delegates.

“And he knows if he doesn’t get to the magic number of 1,237 before Cleveland, he is going to be in a world of trouble going into a second ballot [at the GOP convention]. So that’s what the worry is with Donald Trump, and if he doesn’t like sharp elbows, get out of the game now.”

And where do Trump’s supporters turn if their candidate does not become the 2016 Republican presidential nominee? Reagan believes it doesn’t look good for the GOP.

“I don’t think the Trump supporters will support the nominee of the party if it is not Donald Trump,” he told Hayworth.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsmax-Tv/michael-reagan-donald-trump-politics-rnc/2016/04/13/id/723806/