Bloomberg 'to consider dropping out' as Trump mocks him for '$700m down the drain'

Donald Trump labelled Mike Bloomberg the “biggest loser” of Super Tuesday following a night of disappointing results for the billionaire Democratic hopeful.

The former mayor of New York picked up only a handful of delegates from the territory of American Samoa, despite spending more than half a billion dollars of his own money on the campaign.

After failing to make headway in key target states, sources close to his campaign have said that Bloomberg plans to reassess whether he should stay in the race. Politico cited several people close to the campaign saying his exit was all but certain. The Associated Press reported that he would decide whether to continue in the race tomorrow.

“The biggest loser tonight, by far, is Mini Mike Bloomberg. His ‘political’ consultants took him for a ride. $700 million washed down the drain, and he got nothing for it but the nickname Mini Mike, and the complete destruction of his reputation,” Trump tweeted.

Earlier in the night, Bloomberg was in a combative mood as he said his campaign has “achieved something no one else thought was possible”, touting his rise from “one percent in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination for president."

But poor performances in several bellwether states targeted by the billionaire’s campaign have raised questions about his future in the race.

Despite spending more than $17 million on television advertising alone in North Carolina, and building a significant ground game, Bloomberg is projected to finish third in the state behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.

One campaign aide blamed the former mayor’s poor performance in his debut debate in Las Vegas last month.

"This isn’t going as planned," a campaign adviser told CNN’s Jeff Zeleny. "Things changed after Las Vegas debate and never recovered."

In Virginia, too, the signs were bad. His campaign has flooded the airwaves with television commercials in the past few months, and he has visited some seven times.

But that effort has shown little reward so far, with polling currently placing him in fourth place with 9.5 percent.

Campaign manager Kevin Sheekey told reporters earlier in the night that Bloomberg was “absolutely” not dropping out.

Bloomberg’s spending has dwarfed that of his rivals, a strategy that is credited with propelling him in the polls from around 5 percent in November to around 15 percent today.