TRENTON -- Donald Trump had a prediction Wednesday for what would happen if he makes it to the Republican National Convention in July just a few votes shy of winning the party's presidential nomination outright and ends up losing a contested convention.

"I think you'd have riots," the billionaire businessman and former Atlantic City casino tycoon said during an interview on CNN's "New Day."

Trump stressed that he represents "many millions of people" who fervently support his candidacy.

"If you disenfranchise those people, and you say, 'I'm sorry, you're 100 votes short' ... I think you'd have problems like you've never seen before," he said. "I think bad things would happen. I wouldn't lead it, but I think bad things would happen."

The interview came the morning after Trump won at least three of five states Tuesday, bringing the Republican front-runner's delegate total to 661. He leads Ted Cruz (406 delegates) and John Kasich (142).

Trump won the critical state of Florida, forcing the state's U.S. senator, Marco Rubio, out of the race. But he lost another key state, Ohio, to Kasich, the state's governor.

And that has led some experts to wonder if Trump will fall short of 1,237 delegates he needs to win the GOP nod outright before the party's convention in Cleveland in four months.

If he doesn't, there could be a contested convention.

In that scenario, delegates are pledged to vote for a candidate on only the first ballot. After that, anyone -- even someone who hasn't been running -- can win the party's nomination.

But Trump doesn't expect it to get that far. He told "New Day" host Chris Cuomo that he intends to get to 1,237.

"I'm a closer," he said. "I get things closed."

One state still has not been decided from last night. Trump and Cruz are separated by tenths of a percentage point in Missouri, a state with 52 Republican delegates.

Trump has led the race for the Republican nod for months, riding a wave of support from voters who are angry at the GOP establishment and have been looking for an outsider candidate.

The businessman has been accused, especially recently, of stoking that anger and inciting violence at his campaign rallies.

But Trump maintains that he will unify the party in the end.

"I really do believe I am a unifier," he said on "New Day." "I think President Obama is a divider, and I think he's proven that. We have to win, and as we win, people will forget, and they will feel better, and that's the way life is. And it's always been that way for a million years."

Trump added that he expects there to be a "healing process" at the end of the race -- which started with 17 Republican contenders, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

"We're down now to three," he said. "But this has been a nasty one."

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.