Donald Trump addresses Republicans via a video link on the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (Photo: AFP)
In a landmark moment in American politics and a stunning victory for a man whose White House ambitions were once openly mocked, Republicans formally chose Donald Trump as the party’s presidential nominee on Tuesday.
After a turbulent campaign that saw Mr Trump defeat 16 rivals and steamroll stubborn party opposition, the tycoon said it was time to “go all the way” and beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in November.
“This is a movement,” he told the delegates via video link.
On the convention floor, states from Alabama to West Virginia took turns to pledge their delegates. In the roll call that began the night, 721 delegates cast their votes for candidates other than Mr Trump — the most significant expression of party dissent since 1976, when Republicans had a contested convention.
It fell to Trump’s home state of New York, represented by a coterie of the candidate’s adult children, to hand him the majority-plus-one needed to clinch the nomination.
His son Donald Jr. announced that New York’s delegates had delivered the votes he needed, putting Mr Trump over the 1,237-delegate threshold.
Around the convention floor, Trump’s victory was far from universally welcomed.
Many delegates clapped politely after his victory, a few angrily walked out or voiced their unease.
“I’m disappointed’ said Utah Senator Mike Lee. “But it is what it is.”
Washington delegate Teri Galvez said baldly: “We do not support Donald Trump.”
But as the last vestiges of Republican resistance were quashed, there were fresh signs that the party establishment had thrown its lot in with Trump in a bid to beat Hillary Clinton.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie led delegates in declaring Clinton “guilty” and encouraged visceral chants of “lock her up”.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan declared “the Obama years are almost over. The Clinton years are way over. Two-thousand sixteen is the year America moves on.”
The Trump campaign will hope that disdain for Clinton will unite the party and make a series of missteps irrelevant.
