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AP Photo Trump ties delegate complaints to failing U.S. 'system'

For Donald Trump, the system of selecting delegates to the Republican National Convention is another example of how the usual way of doing things has failed the average American, the GOP candidate suggested in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Thursday evening.

In the piece, titled "Let Me Ask America a Question," Trump remarked that "politicians furiously defended the system" that resulted in his losing out on delegates in Colorado in recent days, adding, "'These are the rules,' we were told over and over again. If the 'rules' can be used to block Coloradans from voting on whether they want better trade deals, or stronger borders, or an end to special-interest vote-buying in Congress—well, that’s just the system and we should embrace it."

Trump then asked, "Let me ask America a question: How has the 'system' been working out for you and your family?"

"The only antidote to decades of ruinous rule by a small handful of elites is a bold infusion of popular will," he declared. "On every major issue affecting this country, the people are right and the governing elite are wrong. The elites are wrong on taxes, on the size of government, on trade, on immigration, on foreign policy."

Turning to his main rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump said his "campaign strategy is to win with the voters," while Cruz's "is to win despite them."

"Delegates are supposed to reflect the decisions of voters, but the system is being rigged by party operatives with 'double-agent' delegates who reject the decision of voters," Trump said. "The American people can have no faith in such a system. It must be reformed."

He continued, tying his past promises to reform "unfair trade, immigration and economic policies that have also been rigged against Americans" to a vow to "work closely with the chairman of the Republican National Committee and top GOP officials to reform our election policies.

"Together, we will restore the faith—and the franchise—of the American people," he continued. "We must leave no doubt that voters, not donors, choose the nominee."

Invoking those in Colorado who have protested the party's decision last summer to do away with the popular primary vote, Trump wrote that their efforts should be a "rallying cry on behalf of all the forgotten people whose desperate pleas have for decades fallen on the deaf ears and closed eyes of our rulers in Washington, D.C."

He concluded: "The political insiders have had their way for a long time. Let 2016 be remembered as the year the American people finally got theirs."