• by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, July 20, 2016

It has now been decided, Donald Trump is no longer the “presumptive” Republican nominee. He has officially won a majority of the 2,472 delegates present at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and will lead the Republican ballot on November 8, 2016.

Despite another attempt by the #NeverTrump camp at the start of the evening to derail proceedings in Ohio, Trump sailed through the nominating roll call vote.

His son, Donald Trump Jr., who spoke later in the evening, announced the apportionment of the New York delegates, the vast majority of which went to his father, flanked by his siblings Ivanka and Eric, among others.

One could sense what looked like genuine emotion from Trump Jr. and his siblings as the New York delegates officially made Trump the GOP presidential nominee. Donald Jr. capped off his floor announcement for the New York delegation with a touching, note extraordinary for a national convention: “Congratulations Dad! We love you!”

While much can be said about the speakers last night, which ranged from Trump’s children, Donald Jr. and Tiffany, to a rousing UFC president Dana White,  House Speaker Ryan and Senate majority leader McConnell (who appeared on stage to resounding boos), the utterly unbelievable political rise of the New York businessman and TV personality is noteworthy.

According to CNN, back in August 2015, Donald Trump jumped from having a 1% chance of winning the Republican nomination in July to 19% at the end of August. At the time, Jeb(!) Bush had a 24% chance of winning the nomination.

A concoction of strong debate performances, nonstop TV appearances and rousing campaign stops elevated a scrappy, if not wildly understaffed campaign apparatus, to the heights of American politics in 2016.

Credit the power of Donald Trump’s personality. He has been able to convince old rivals to support his nomination and bring in recently averse Republicans, most notably Paul Ryan, to his campaign.

Present throughout the Trump campaign and central to the Cleveland convention is a visceral anti-Clinton position. Trump has understood where many Republicans stand on this issue — and convention speeches have followed suit.

So have convention attendees, who rose to their feet in a united “lock her up” chant during Chris Christie’s speech last night. Trump has won the first battle, but now it’s war.