RNC 2016: Let's go all the way, Donald Trump tells Republican Convention after securing nomination

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He can’t help himself. If it’s normal etiquette for a newly branded nominee mostly to stay away from their party’s national convention until its last day, Donald Trump has felt compelled to drop by in Cleveland every day.

True, his appearance on Tuesday night to thank the delegates for formally putting him over the top and giving him the party nomination was by video link. Not explaining where he was exactly, he looked down at the convention floor from giant screens to ask, “Are you having fun?”

The crowd was pleased to see him. This week in Cleveland is, after all, about him and his stunning journey from unlikely and untried politician to standard-bearer of his party.

“I will never forget it, its something I will never, ever forget,” he said of the moment that his children stood with the New York delegation and midway through the traditional roll call announced that their father had secured the votes necessary to take the party crown.

“This stage of the presidential process has come to a close tonight,” Mr Trump declared. “We have secured historic votes with the largest vote total in the history of the Republican Party,” he boasted, before admonishing the hall: “We have to go all the away.”

The campaign said earlier that Mr Trump will land by helicopter beside the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame on the edge of Lake Erie on Wednesday night for a party event with members of his family. He will take the stage on Thursday evening for his victory speech accepting the nomination, an event that his campaign hopes will draw record television ratings.

He gave a small foretaste of that speech in his video appearance, promising to give the country, “leadership that puts the American people first.”

“We are going to bring back our jobs, we are going to rebuild our depleted military and take care of our great veterans and we are going to have strong borders…and we we going to restore law and order,” he said, saying he would discuss the themes further on Thursday. “We are going to make American great again.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton seized on the tumult that broke out in Cleveland over claims that sections of a speech given by Melania Trump, the nominee’s wife, on Monday had been lifted from a speech given eight years ago by Michelle Obama.

Mr Trump had showed up in person for that too, making a James Bond-style entrance, his slow-motion silhouette shown against a bright white background.

“When you pull back the curtain, it was just Donald Trump with nothing to offer to the American people,” Ms Clinton said during a speech in Las Vegas.