Spotlight: Once bellicose, Trump now sounds "presidential"

After his sweeping victory in Indiana primary on Tuesday night forced main rival Ted Cruz out of the race, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump finally became the presumptive GOP nominee.

Standing behind a podium at a victory rally in New York, the billionaire developer, famous for his incendiary remarks and once ridiculed by critics for launching a circus-like campaign, adopted a serious posture and surprisingly sounded "presidential".

"He (Ted Cruz) is a tough, smart guy. He's got an amazing future," said Trump. "What Ted did was a brave thing to do, because we want to bring unity to the Republican Party."

The tone was in stark contrast to Trump's continuous name-calling of the junior senator from Texas as "Lying Ted", and came only hours after the real estate mogul kicked off the day citing on cable a National Enquirer report which linked Cruz's father to the assassination of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

It was not the first time that a family member of Cruz got involved in the feud between the two candidates.

Trump shocked the U.S. political world in March after he retweeted an unflattering photo of Cruz's wife Heidi Cruz with a disparaging comment.

Trump later admitted that he had made a mistake but still argued that Cruz "did it first," referring to an anti-Trump super PAC's campaign that circulated a nude photo of Trump's wife, Melania, to Mormon voters in Utah.

Cruz adamantly denied any knowledge about that incident and condemned it.

It was a rare moment of contrition for Trump, as the candidate had refused to apologize for a litany of insults hurled at his rivals or anyone he did not like.

Trump first drew widespread criticism last June when he said in his presidential announcement speech that Mexico was sending "rapists" and drug dealers to the United States. Since that, he had repeatedly vowed, if elected president, to deport about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

In another outburst of emotional remarks, Trump called for a "total and complete" ban on Muslims entering the United States in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks in November 2015.

According to a list compiled by The New York Times, Trump had insulted on Twitter 210 individuals, places and things since declaring his presidential candidacy last June.

The Times list did not include targets of Trump's insults broadcasted on cable.

Also, Trump had repeatedly attacked China's trade policy. In a graphic escalation in his language on Sunday, he accused China of "raping" America in trade, a rhetoric which was soon refuted by experts.

Trump's claim "is simply absurd and ... must be treated as the nonsense that it is," said Tim Worstall, a senior fellow at the Adam Smith Institute, a British think tank.

In his article "Donald Trump Is Wrong on China -- Again" on the Forbes website, Worstall said: "China happens to be producing things that American consumers desire to have -- nothing like the vile and foul crime of rape."

He felt puzzled when hearing Trump call China "the greatest theft in the history of the world," because "It's just very difficult to think of people doing exactly what you desire them to do as being theft," Worstall said.

"We are not being attacked, raped or made poorer in any manner by buying more goods from China than we sell to them. Quite the contrary: We are made richer by what we import," Worstall added. Endi