“The candidate took in the good news with an oddly inert expression. 'Maybe I’ll get beat tomorrow,' he said, for at least the third time that day. Not a single poll had given him cause for worry. But for all his swagger, Trump had an awareness of unseen, deal-breaking contingencies that held his triumphalism in check. He was compulsively superstitious; twice on other plane trips I had seen him toss a few granules of salt over his left shoulder after eating. And here he was, on the day before he would effectively clinch his nomination, calling a single obscure delegate in a state he had already won in a landslide — an implicit nod to the forces aligned against him before resuming the affect of indomitability.”

Annotation

Draper on how Trump was cautious about his chances of locking up the Republican nomination and thorough in trying to shore up support. 

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