Here's your weekly wrap up of the US election campaign

USA Votes 2016
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton head west ahead of the California primaries
They say life is better at the beach and it's been all palm trees and sunshine this week as the candidates target the Golden State ahead of the California primary.

The last big swathe of states vote on Tuesday to finalise who should run for president from each party.

We know Donald Trump already has the Republican nomination in the bag and Hillary Clinton will be confirmed for the Democrats within days.

All of the candidates have been making their pitches from San Francisco to San Diego and everywhere else in between.

Although she has the superdelegates to get her over the nomination line, Hillary needs to do well in California for bigger reasons.

It seems pretty clear now that much of the campaigning is about winning state loyalty for the general election to come, rather than the handful of remaining primaries.

After this bunch there's just the Washington DC primary to go for the Democrats on June 14 and then it's on to the conventions!

That will be a new version of chaos.

VICTORS

Donald Trump

He's finally won over Speaker of the House Paul Ryan who provided an endorsement - albeit a tepid one - of The Donald in an opinion piece in his local paper.

Mr Ryan is the latest in a series of Republicans who have reversed their positions out of sheer necessity.

The influential Speaker held out for as long as he could. For the record, it was 28 days.

Hillary Clinton

The former secretary of state unleashed a blistering attack on Trump on Thursday in a "national security" speech in California.

The Democratic frontrunner certainly made out that Trump was the number one threat to American security.

During the speech Hillary said of her rival: "This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes because it's not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin."

She also called him "dangerously incoherent" and "unfit" to be commander in chief.

Not surprisingly, Trump was quick to strike back via Twitter.



And by the way if Hillary's patriotism was ever in question, count the flags. I counted 19.

Apparently, The Stars and Stripes Forever was playing on repeat for more than an hour.



VANQUISHED

Bernie Sanders

The writing is scrawled on the wall and has been for some time.

In the New York Times, Nate Cohn breaks down why Bernie Sanders will be done before polls even close after the last big clutch of primaries next Tuesday night.

Why? Well, it's not just superdelegates.

Cohn writes:

"If there were only pledged delegates, Mrs Clinton would clinch the nomination with 33 percent of the vote in the remaining contests. This is why it's fair to say that she doesn't need to win any remaining states."

PARLEZ VOUS FRANCAIS?

As you're aware, some Republicans have found the prospect of a Trump candidacy tough to swallow and have been actively seeking a third-party alternative to rally behind.

Mitt Romney's name is still being thrown around but it looks like the #neverTrump team has settled on David French.

Who? Good question.

The Iraq war veteran, constitutional lawyer and staff writer at conservative publication National Review ticks a lot of boxes. The question is will he run? And even if he does, will it matter? Signs point to no.

"PS, YOU'RE A LOSER"

The King of Twitter, Trump, has a habit of speaking his mind but before he did it in 140 characters he was penning hand-written letters to allies and rivals alike.

The New York Times took a look at some of his personalised notes this week. They vary in tone, much like his tweets.

He gushed over New York's former mayor Rudy Giuliani and attacked former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I don't want a wall named after me but that's OK. I want a statue in Washington, DC. Maybe share it with Jefferson."

That was Trump in Montana this week already thinking about his legacy.

If not a wall, or a statue, would a mask do? Check out this factory in China making Trump, Clinton and Sanders masks. Halloween costume anyone?

STRAP OF THE WEEK

The American cable networks provide rolling, wall-to-wall coverage of the presidential campaign.

Whether you're tuned into CNN, Fox News or MSNBC, it's all you see and that means a lot of Trump.

This week, CNN gets the prize for best strap after fact-checking Trump in 10 words.



HEADLINE OF THE WEEK

Trump was almost eclipsed by the sad and complicated story of the death of Harambe the gorilla this week.

In case you've been living on Mars, the animal was shot when a child entered its enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and there's been a flood of social media commentary about whose fault the whole sorry outcome was.

As I said, the story almost took the spotlight from The Donald, almost.

BY THE NUMBERS

Seventy-one per cent. That's percentage of young voters Bernie has secured so far in the primary process.

That equates to about 2.4 million votes from people younger than 30 years of age in 25 states.

To put that figure in perspective, Barack Obama racked up 2.2 million votes from the under 30s in 2008.

Bernie has already surpassed that and the primary isn't even finished. Not bad for an old guy. Let's remember, he's 74.

HEATING UP

The final three candidates have been spending a lot of time in sunny California and while that's usually an attractive proposition in late May and early June, it's pretty hot.

Reporters have been seen hiding from the sun at Bernie rallies and even the Republican himself was feeling the burn, putting a cap on halfway through an event.

Meanwhile, it's cool air blowing out from the lectern Trump is standing behind - or at least that was the case in Sacramento.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Speaking of warm weather, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands head to the polls this weekend, which should get Hillary tantalisingly close to the threshold she needs to meet next Tuesday.

Then, New Jersey, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, New Mexico and California head to the polls.

Exhale. We're nearly there. Well, nearly at the end of the primaries at least.

Zoe

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