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 The Republican front-runner came under fire from Obama on Friday
over Trump's recent comments that he would not rule out using
nuclear weapons in Europe and that Japan and South Korea might need
nuclear weapons to ease the U.S. financial commitment to their
security.
"The person who made the statements doesn't know much about foreign
policy or nuclear policy or the Korean peninsula, or the world
generally," Obama told a news conference at the conclusion of a
nuclear security summit in Washington.
"I've said before that people pay attention to American elections.
What we do is really important to the rest of the world,” he said.
Trump lost ground on the online prediction market after drawing fire
for his suggestion earlier in the week, which he later dialed back,
that women be punished for getting abortions if the procedure is
banned.
Those who marveled at Trump's rise are now warning the New York
billionaire that his shoot-from-the-lip approach to campaigning
could jeopardize his chance to win the Republican nomination for the
Nov. 8 election.
 Tuesday could be a turning point when Wisconsin hosts its nominating
contest. Trump, 69, trails his leading rival, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz,
45, of Texas in the Upper Midwestern state.
A Cruz win would make it harder for Trump to reach the magic number
of 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination before the
Republican national convention in July. The winner will get to claim
all of Wisconsin's 42 delegates.
"If he continues to fumble the ball, he risks everything," said
David Bossie, who as president of the conservative group Citizens
United has helped to introduce Trump to grassroots activists. "These
types of ham-handed mistakes give his opponents even greater
opportunity."
But losing the Republican nomination may not keep Trump out of the
November election.
In excerpts of an interview on "Fox News Sunday" to be aired this
Sunday, Trump said he wanted to run as a Republican but declined to
rule out a third-party candidacy.
Asked what he would do if he didn’t get the Republican nomination,
Trump replied: “We’re going to have to see how I was treated.”
TRUMP, PARTY TALK UNITY
A businessman and former reality TV show host, Trump has never held
public office but hails his mastery of negotiating business deals as
the sort of experience a U.S. president needs to be successful at
home and abroad.
He sent ripples through the Republican Party, which promotes a
muscular foreign policy, by declaring NATO obsolete and for
asserting that as president he might loosen the ties with
longstanding U.S. allies.
Trump made a surprise visit on Thursday to the Republican National
Committee in Washington where he said he and Chairman Reince Priebus
discussed how to unify the party going into the July convention.
Priebus also addressed any confusion Trump may have had about
delegate allocation rules that will govern the proceedings, a source
familiar with the meeting told Reuters.
Should Trump fail to win enough delegates to secure the nomination
outright in the state-by-state contests ending in June, party
delegates will select a nominee at the convention in a complex
process of sequential votes.
Online predictions market PredictIt said on Friday that the
probability Trump will win his party's nomination has dropped
sharply in the past week while the likelihood of a contested
convention to choose another candidate has risen.
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CAMPAIGN STYLE A RISK
Those Republicans who see in Trump a chance to generate voter
turnout beyond party regulars to blue-collar Democrats and win the
White House say his detail-free style of campaigning has come back
to haunt him and he needs to gear up for a new phase.
Trump needs to be less sensitive about attacks from opponents and
let some go by without responding, said retired neurosurgeon Ben
Carson, a former Republican presidential candidate who dropped out
of the race earlier this year and has since endorsed Trump.
"If he can just get beyond that and learn how to bite his tongue and
redirect people to something that is important, it will show a level
of statesmanship," Carson said.
During the Wisconsin campaign, Trump has relentlessly attacked the
state's governor, Scott Walker, another Republican who dropped out
of the presidential race last year and who has endorsed Cruz.
Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has
offered Trump informal advice, said Trump should replicate the type
of performance he gave at the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee on March 21, when he spoke from a teleprompter and offered
a well-thought-out case for strong U.S.-Israeli relations.
Gingrich said Trump should make eight to 10 policy speeches in order
to give voters "a sense of stability and seriousness."
"He's gone from being an insurgent that people laughed at and a
front-runner that people were amazed by to the potential nominee.
That requires you to change your role as all this comes together,"
Gingrich said.
Alternatively, Trump could start to listen to what he says is his
wife Melania's longtime admonishment: "Darling, be more
presidential."
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator Bernie
Sanders will compete in Wisconsin on Tuesday on the Democratic Party
side. Both have hop-scotched between Wisconsin and New York, which
holds its primary on April 19.
Clinton, a former U.S. senator from New York with national campaign
headquarters in Brooklyn, is trying to prevent the Brooklyn-born
Sanders, who represents Vermont in the Senate, from eroding support
on her home turf. Both candidates will attend a state party
fundraising dinner in Wisconsin on Saturday.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Additional reporting by Amanda Becker,
Eric Beech, Alana Wise; Editing by Howard Goller, Cynthia Osterman
and Leslie Adler)
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