Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a town hall meeting on March 14, 2016 at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa , Florida. | Getty Trump warns of 'riots' if he isn't GOP nominee A contested convention could 'disenfranchise' millions of voters, he says.

Donald Trump on Wednesday sounded like a man ready to take the stage as the Republican Party's nominee by acclamation at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland come mid-July, delegate math and a debate scheduled (and later canceled) for next Monday be damned.

Denying him the GOP nomination as part of a contested convention, he declared, would "disenfranchise" the millions of people he is bringing into the party and could spark riots. The only problem: Delegate math.


Trump, who flooded the morning television shows with a deluge of off-camera telephone calls after a night of big wins that knocked Florida Sen. Marco Rubio out of the race, said that even if he doesn’t amass a majority of delegates by July, the party should unite behind him anyway. But Trump has a ways to go when it comes to getting to the magic number of 1,237.

At this point in the 2012 race, which began a month earlier than this year's, Mitt Romney was already on his way to securing a simple majority of total delegate votes, though even he did not get there until a resounding victory in Texas on May 29.

“I think we'll win before getting to the convention, but I can tell you, if we didn't and if we're 20 votes short or if we're 100 short and we're at 1,100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400, because we're way ahead of everybody, I don't think you can say that we don't get it automatically. I think it would be — I think you'd have riots,” Trump told CNN's "New Day."

Trump said he's bringing in all kinds of new people to the party, and those voices must be heard — or else.

"Now, if you disenfranchise those people and you say, well I'm sorry but you're 100 votes short, even though the next one is 500 votes short, I think you would have problems like you've never seen before. I think bad things would happen, I really do. I believe that. I wouldn't lead it but I think bad things would happen," he said.

The Manhattan real-estate mogul also declared that he would not participate in Monday's Fox News debate in Salt Lake City, telling the network's morning show that he would instead speak at the convention for pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, in Washington. "I think it's enough," Trump said of the 12 GOP debates to date.

Without Trump, John Kasich's campaign suggested, the Ohio governor would also skip the debate. "Donald Trump's decision to scuttle the Salt Lake City debate is disappointing, but not surprising. His values are out of step with the people of Utah," Kasich's chief strategist John Weaver said. "We had hoped to contrast Governor Kasich's positive inclusive approach to problem solving with Trump's campaign of division. If he changes his mind, we will be there."

Fox News would announce later in the afternoon that the debate had been canceled, citing decisions from both Trump and Kasich.

"On Feb. 20, the Republican National Committee announced that a GOP presidential primary debate would be held on March 21 in Salt Lake City. They offered that debate to Fox News Channel to host, provided there were enough candidates actively campaigning," Fox News Executive Vice President Michael Clemente said in a statement. "This morning, Donald Trump announced he would not be participating in the debate. Shortly afterward, John Kasich's campaign announced that without Trump at the debate, Kasich would not participate. Ted Cruz has expressed a willingness to debate Trump or Kasich — or both. But obviously, there needs to be more than one participant. So the Salt Lake City debate is cancelled."

One of the GOP's top officials appeared unfazed by Trump's warning of possible riots in Cleveland.

“Well first of all I assume he’s speaking figuratively," Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee's chief strategist and spokesman, told CNN later in the morning. "I think if we go into a convention, whoever gets 1,237 delegates becomes the nominee. It’s plain and simple.”

The RNC is "going to continue to prepare for all contingencies, including an open convention," Spicer said.

Trump's remaining rivals are clinging to that hope, arguing that if he can't secure a majority, it's anyone's ball game.

“Neither Cruz nor Trump can win the general election, Kasich said on NBC’s “Today." "They can’t come into Ohio with the philosophies they have and win. If you can’t win Ohio, you can’t be president.”

The Ohio governor is coming off a much-needed win in his home state, but according to POLITICO’s delegate tracker he still only has 138 delegates — just a fraction of Cruz’s 396 and Trump’s 621. It is no longer possible for Kasich to reach a majority of delegates, but he is openly vying for a contested convention in Cleveland this summer.

“I’m gonna be the nominee,” Kasich said. “Nobody is gonna have enough delegates to win at the convention. Everyone is gonna fall short."

Meanwhile Ted Cruz, also speaking on “New Day," said it was time for Kasich to drop out of he wants to stop Trump.

“I congratulate John Kasich on winning his home state,” Cruz said. “But it’s mathematically impossible for John Kasich to become the nominee. At this point he had lost 20 states before Ohio. And it’s mathematically impossible for him to go forward,” Cruz added.

“If you don’t have a clear path to winning, it doesn’t make sense to stay in the race," Cruz said. "And I would note: Every day John Kasich stays in the race benefits Donald Trump."

And if no one emerges from the pack, former House Speaker John Boehner floated another plan Wednesday, announcing his support of current House Speaker Paul Ryan as a dark-horse candidate — never mind that Ryan said as recently as Tuesday that he is "not running for president." (Boehner had previously backed his home-state governor, Kasich.)

"If we don't have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I'm for none of the above," Boehner said at a conference in Boca Raton, Florida. "They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I'm for none of the above. I'm for Paul Ryan to be our nominee."

At the same event, Boehner also referred to Cruz as "Lucifer."

Kyle Cheney, Hadas Gold, Patrick Temple-West and Jake Sherman contributed.