
Donald Trump cruised to victory in New York on Tuesday, crushing his two remaining opponents in what could be the high water mark of his unconventional Republican primary campaign.

A triumphant Trump entered the lobby of his signature Trump Tower to speak to supporters as Frank Sinatra's 'New York, New York' blared over loudspeakers.

The GOP front-runner thanked 'the people who know me best' for a resounding win over Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

The only region of the state he lost, to Kasich, was the New York City borough of Manhattan – where he and those people live and work.

Trump claimed at least 89 of New York's 95 delegates to the Republican National Convention. Kasich won three.

The final three were still undecided as midnight approached, but Trump will likely claim at least two of them.

'We're going to end at a very high level and get more delegates than anyone projected,' he boasted.

With almost 99 per cent of the votes counted, Trump had more than 60 per cent of ballots cast. Kasich had 25 per cent of the vote and Cruz brought up the rear with 14.5 per cent.

'We don't have much of a race anymore, based on what I'm seeing on television,' said Trump, as he seemed to look past the remaining primary contests with an eye toward November – although he made no mention of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

'Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated' from winning the GOP nomination, he claimed, observing that 'we have won millions of more votes than Senator Cruz. Millions and millions of more votes than Governor Kasich.'

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I Love NY: Donald Trump, who carried out a fierce campaign in his home state, obliterated his rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich on Tuesday. With 98 per cent of the votes counted, Trump had 60.5%. Kasich had 25.1% and Cruz brought up the rear with 14.5%

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Clean sweep: The only region of the state Trump lost, to Kasich, was the New York City borough of Manhattan – where he lives and works

Family affair: Trump was flanked by his children - including Tiffany (left) and Ivanka (in red) - and wife Melania (right) at his victory speech in Trump Tower on Tuesday night minutes after voting closed

The Donald claimed at least 89 of New York's 95 delegates to the Republican National Convention, while Kasich won three. The final three delegates were still undecided as midnight approached, but Trump will likely claim at least two of them

Eric Trump, who did not register to vote in time to support his father, was joined by his journalist wife Lara, who voted Trump

Trump clan (L-R): Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski looks behind the crowd; Eric and Lara Trump; The Donald speaks front center; Tiffany, his daughter with Marla Maples, is behind his shoulder; Vanessa Trump and Don Jr; Ivanka Trump, her husband newspaper owner Jared Kushner, and their four-year-old daughter Arabella stand far right

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, owner of the New York Observer, embrace their daughter Arabella next to Melania

After party: Ivanka, who recently gave birth, exclaims as she speaks to a member of the party next to Donald and her stepmom Melania

Ivanka (pictured laughing with her husband after her father's victory speech) has played a key role in her father's campaign, accompanying him on trails - despite being heavily pregnant - and even making several videos encouraging states to come out and cast their vote

Tiffany (pictured behind her father and her half-brother Don) has been less present on the campaign trail than her older siblings as she continues her double major in sociology and urban studies at the University of Pennsylvania, now in her senior year

The lobby of Trump Tower was packed out with fans and press after Trump was declared the winner within minutes of the vote closing

Frank Sinatra's 'New York, New York' blared over loudspeakers in the lobby as Trump and his clan took to the microphone

After his speech, Donald heading through the crowds of fawning fans trying to film the triumphant moment, followed by Melania

Trump hammered home his consistent popular vote lead, throwing an elbow at Cruz for a pattern of accumulating convention delegates at statewide party meetings rather than at the ballot box.

'It's really nice to win the delegates with the votes,' Trump declared.

'Nobody should take delegates and claim victory unless they get those delegates with voters and voting. ... the people aren't going to stand for it.'

The real estate tycoon said he would be 'going to go into the convention, I think, as the winner' in July. 'But nobody can take away an election,' he warned, 'like they have done with the Republican Party.'

Television networks called the race for Trump just moments after the polls closed at 9:00 p.m.

Applause broke out while the billionaire's supporters and staff crowded into the Trump Tower lobby and watched a monitor tuned to the Fox News Channel for the announcement everyone knew would come.

Trump, meanwhile, was busy tweeting about coverage on a rival network, complaining that CNN 'is so negative it's impossible to watch.'

The moment itself was anticlimactic: No one in the marbled skyscraper expected Trump to finish without a gold medal in the state where he has matched one of the world's great cities step for step in glamour and excess.

By contrast, Clinton and Vermont's democratic socialist senator Bernie Sanders were locked in a battle that was too close to call for a half-hour.

Hillary was ultimately declared the winner by a comfortable 57-42 margin.

'With record numbers of voters viewing Hillary Clinton unfavorably, New York Democrats moved their least electable candidate a little closer to the finish line,' Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement that didn't mention Trump at all.

'Whether it’s her refusal to release the transcripts of her paid Wall Street speeches, her secret email server that’s triggered an ongoing FBI investigation, or her flip flops on issue after issue, Hillary Clinton has shown herself unwilling to be open and honest with the American people.'

'Only a Republican president will get America back on track by strengthening our economy and restoring America’s leadership role in the world,' he said.

In a speech that touched on nearly all of his hobby-horse themes – veterans, Obamacare premiums, job losses and trade among them – Trump focused on problems he said he saw in upstate New York during a rally tour that took him to Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, Rome and Buffalo.

'New York state has problems like virtually every other state in the union,' he said. 'Our jobs are being sucked out of our states. ... We're going to stop it.'

He predicted the same dynamics that thrust him to the head of the pack in New York would play out in other states like Maryland, Indiana and Pennsylvania.

'Tomorrow morning we go back to work. ... We're going to celebrate for about two hours,' he said.

Bitter defeat: Cruz pictured speaking in Philadelphia after coming third in the New York primary with 14.5 per cent of ballots cast

Cruz fled the Big Apple and gave a brief speech in Tuesday night Philadelphia comparing himself with Presidentis John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, leaning on the theme: 'Not "Yes we can" but now, 'yes we will'

Ohio Governor John Kasich speaks with a supporter at a campaign rally in Annapolis, Maryland, after coming second in the New York vote

Kasich (pictured donning a pair of boxing gloves at campaign stop in Annapolis, Maryland, on Tuesday) is so far behind that even if he won every remaining delegate he wouldn’t have enough to win

The only question remaining on the Republican side of the ledger Tuesday night remained whether he could collect more than half of the votes cast on Tuesday – statewide and in each of the Empire State's 27 congressional districts.

He nearly ran the table, winning majorities overall and in at least 25 of those districts, an outcome beyond what even the most devoted Trump Train passengers had hoped for.

Trump sought to tamp down expectations Tuesday afternoon, telling WABC radio in New York City that out 'I think if I got 75 delegates, that would be considered a great night. Maybe I can get more.'

That's likely a low-expectations number. If Trump were to win his home state with more than 50 per cent of the vote overall and in just a dozen districts, while winning the rest with smaller numbers, he would collect 80.

'I'd like to break 50 per cent,' Trump said Tuesday, calling it 'more of a psychological number. ... If I got 50 per cent, that would be a great tribute.'

Kasich was projected to finish in second place just 20 minutes after polls closed, leaving Cruz far back in third.

A Cruz campaign official told CNN that the tea party firebrand could leave New York with no delegates at all.

'Our expectation is that we are not going to win any,' the official said. 'Anything is good; if we can get any to take any from Donald Trump that would be good.'

It wasn't to be. Cruz prevailed nowhere, giving Trump a new rhetorical weapon to hit him with in the weeks to come.

Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign manager, said in the atrium of his boss's towering namesake building in Manhattan that snaring 70 delegates 'would be a great night.'

But he told DailyMail.com that running the table completely in New York was 'an unrealistic expectation,' considering 'how difficult it is to win over 50 per cent in 27 individual congressional districts. Plus, in a three-way race.'

Ultimately, Lewandowski would predict only that Trump would outperform the numbers Cruz and Kasich posted in winning their home states, 43.8 per cent and 46.8 per cent, respectively.

Trump exceeded that expectation by a long shot.

Lewandowski boasted that Ted Cruz, who is in second place in the delegate counting, 'is going to be mathematically eliminated from the nomination a week from tonight,' a prediction that his boss echoed a half-hour later from behind a podium.

'If the results go well tonight, he has to win 95 per cent of the remaining delegates moving forward, which is an almost impossible task,' Lewandowski said of Cruz.

'I think it's time to unite around Donald Trump. ... We'd encourage Sen. Cruz to come join us,' Lewandowski said with a dry passive-aggressiveness.

Then he disappeared down an escalator into the food court beneath Trump Tower's lobby to join a private reception until the vote totals began to trickle in.

This was The Donald's 'thank you' message to New York after his win was declared in seconds on Tuesday night

Trump brandished his ballot at reporters as he voted for himself earlier on Tuesday

Melania Trump was seen casting her vote on Tuesday, wearing sunglasses inside. Flanked by her security detail, the 45-year-old aspiring First Lady wore a sleek ensemble of white jeans, black t-shirt, and black blazer with stiletto heels to fill out the fateful ticket

Donald Trump Jr filled out his ballot with his 18-month-old daughter Chloe near Trump Tower on Tuesday afternoon

Cruz fled the Big Apple and gave a brief speech in Tuesday night Philadelphia comparing himself with Presidentis John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, leaning on the theme: 'Not "Yes we can" but now, 'yes we will.'

His optimistic remarks, delivered in a state whose voters will weigh in on April 26, came despite early ballot numbers that showed him running a distant third in Tuesday's only electoral contest.

Exit polls across New York showed Trump winning on important questions including which candidate New York Republicans believe is best positioned to beat Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in a general election matchup.

Trump won handily on that score among voters interviewed by pollsters. ABC News reported that 56 per cent chose him. Kasich came in a distant second with just 21 per cent.

In Wisconsin just a few weeks ago, Cruz won the primary and had the best showing on that question, besting Trump by a 43-37 margin.

Trump also appears to have the support of fellow New Yorkers in his on-again, off-again skirmishes with the Republican National Committee over what could be a squeaked-out victory over his rivals in the nomination fight.

More than 70 per cent of those polled said the Republican with the most votes in the primaries should become the party's nominee.

Just one-quarter said they would rather see a contested convention with party delegates determining the nomination if Trump can't cross the finish line.

In Wisconsin that number, too, was flipped on its head – with 55 per cent favoring a floor fight compared with 43 per cent who wanted an outcome based only on the primary voting.

New York's cache of delegates was a slam-dunk path for Trump's to regain ground lost to Cruz in the delegate hunt after the Texan carved away at Trump's lead by outmaneuvering him at a series of state Republican conventions.

Ted Cruz (left) leaves Fox studios in New York City on Tuesday morning before heading to Maryland then Pennsylvania. John Kasich spent the day eating at an oyster house in Pittsburgh (pictured right)

Trump held a 197 delegate lead over Cruz going into Tuesday’s primary, 756 to 559, with 1,237 delegates needed to capture the GOP nomination outright. The outspoken businessman's total grew to 845 and could reach 848 by Wednesday morning.

As it stood before New York voted, Trump needed to win 61 percent of the remaining delegates to lock up the nomination before the July convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

But with his big win, that requirement dropped to just 57 per cent of the remaining delegates, a considerably easier feat.

Even though Cruz is on the ropes, many delegates are 'pledged' to vote for specific candidates in that first round of voting but are free to switch horses on subsequent ballots.

So the Cruz campaign has been cultivating delegates who are required to back Trump on the first ballot but plan to back the Texan on a second or third ballot if the front-runner falls short of a majority initially.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is so far behind that even if he won every remaining delegate he wouldn’t have enough to win.

But he is refusing to quit the race, arguing that he would be the strongest general election candidate against Clinton in November. Some polls back him up.

Of the next batch of states to vote in seven days' time, Pennsylvania offers the richest haul with 71 delegates up for grabs.

Maryland has 38 delegates at stake, Connecticut has 28, Rhode Island has 19, and Delaware has 16.

The biggest prize remaining on the table is California, which has 172 delegates at stake on June 7, and where Trump and Cruz are gearing up for a brutal TV air war.

But before the race comes to an end, states like Indiana and Nebraska will have a say. Trump will visit Indianapolis for a rally on Wednesday.

Ed Cox, the New York state GOP chairman, predicted a fierce battle there.

'We've seen no negative advertising here in New York. You will see huge negative advertising in Indiana,' Cox told DailyMail.com.