"The Cruz-Kasich pact is under great strain," Donald Trump tweeted. | Getty Trump: Cruz-Kasich deal 'almost dead'

The "joke of a deal" between Ted Cruz and John Kasich to deny him the necessary number of delegates "is falling apart, not being honored and almost dead," Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday morning, in the Republican front-runner's first comments on a day he is expected to clean up at the polls along the Acela corridor.

"The Cruz-Kasich pact is under great strain," Trump tweeted. "This joke of a deal is falling apart, not being honored and almost dead. Very dumb!"


Trump's tweet mirrors the headline of a Monday POLITICO article on the political alliance between Cruz and Kasich, which noted that the Ohio governor did not tell his supporters to vote for Cruz in Indiana, despite diverting resources from that state to Oregon and New Mexico as part of the agreement with the Texas senator's campaign.

Addressing confusion over the agreement on NBC's "Today," Kasich emphasized that his goal is not to stop Trump but to prevent Hillary Clinton from returning to the White House.

"I have laid out a strategy, and I have not told anybody to not vote for me. I'm just not there campaigning," Kasich said. "You know what? When you don't campaign in certain areas in any kind of a race, guess what? Your turnout goes down. I don't tell people how to vote. I am not in that state right now. I will be in other states."