What seemed a political improbability a few months ago – a Republican Party presidential ticket headed by Donald Trump – now looks to be a fait accompli. On Wednesday, the last man still standing as an alternative Republican nominee, John Kasich, declared he was quitting the race. And the day before, Ted Cruz – flag-bearer of the Republicans' Tea Party wing – dropped out after his poor showing in the Indiana republican primary, won decisively by Mr Trump. With the remaining primaries (and delegates) now his for the taking, Mr Trump will go to the Republican convention in Cleveland in July as the presumptive nominee.
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In an illustration of just how divisive a candidate the property developer-turned-television celebrity has been, many senior Republicans have declined to do the customary thing in situations such as this and coalesce around Mr Trump. In their farewell speeches, both Mr Cruz and Mr Kasich declined to pledge their support.
A more forthright Republican senator Lindsay Graham tweeted that "if we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed ... and we will deserved it". Mark Salter, a former campaign adviser to John McCain in 2008, had an even pithier tweet: "I'm with her" – a reference to a crowd chant frequently heard at Hilary Clinton's campaign rallies.
Republican anxieties about Mr Trump are many and varied: he has espoused views in the past on abortion, taxes and gun control that are flagrantly at odds with party beliefs. He is from New York City (a liberal stronghold), is twice divorced, and in 2008 he donated money to Mrs Clinton's 2008 presidential bid. Nor does he subscribe to Republican orthodoxy on foreign policy, trade, and immigration. The biggest fear the party harbours about Mr Trump, however, is that he will lose November's presidential poll comprehensively and in the process cause it to lose its hold on Congress.
Conventional political wisdom has it that with Mr Trump leading the Republican ticket, the 2016 presidential race is as good as over – and that Mrs Clinton will become the United States' first female commander-in-chief. Current polling seems to bear this out: Mr Trump is viewed negatively by three-quarters of non-white voters, by a staggering two-thirds of women voters, and by 70 per cent of voters under35. He has never served in political office, in stark contrast to Mrs Clinton, who's a frequenter of halls of power the world over and a former secretary of state and senator for New York.
Mr Trump is not without his strengths, however. By successfully mining a general mood of disaffection within in the US electorate – one that holds the nation's political and economic elites responsible for manufacturing job losses and widening income disparity – Mr Trump has energised millions of voters, including nominal Democratic Party supporters. Boastful and crude he may be, but many voters appear to warm to his straight-talking and take-no-prisoners approach.
That's not how America's establishment reacts, and it will be fascinating to see how it goes about trying to derail Mr Trump's presidential tilt.