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"He ran everywhere, he won everywhere, and I think tonight's numbers as well show that the Republicans are happy with their nominee," Paul Manafort said about Donald Trump. | Getty Trump strategist calls him 'the head of the Republican Party'

With GOP leaders divided over whether to support their presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump's chief strategist on Tuesday night declared the New Yorker the "head of the Republican Party."

"The Republican Party is a composition of the members of the party and not just the leadership, and he went out there and again he was the largest vote-getter in the history of primaries," Paul Manafort told MSNBC's Chris Matthews. "So he is not just the titular head, but he is the head of the Republican Party, as far as the voters are concerned."

While Reince Priebus runs the Republican National Committee, Manafort said Trump's primary victories and his status as presumptive nominee make him chief of the party.

"He ran everywhere, he won everywhere, and I think tonight's numbers as well show that the Republicans are happy with their nominee," Manafort said on the night Trump won the Republican contests in West Virginia and Nebraska.