AP: Trump Reaches Required Delegate Count, Clinches Republican Nomination

FILE - In this May 24, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Albuquerque, N.M. According to an AP count: Trump has reached the number of delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination for president. Trump, the only remaining GOP candidate left in the race, will go on to accept the nomination at the party's national convention in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

FILE – In this May 24, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Albuquerque, N.M. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has now reached the number of delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination for president.

He was put over the top in the Associated Press delegate count by a small number of the party’s unbound delegates who told the AP they would support him at the convention.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president. Trump has reached 1,238. With 303 delegates at stake in five state primaries on June 7, Trump will easily pad his total, avoiding a contested convention in Cleveland in July.

Trump fought off 16 other Republican contenders in an often ugly primary race. Many on the right have been slow to warm to Trump. Others worry about Trump’s crass personality and the lewd comments he’s made about women.

But millions of grassroots activists have embraced Trump as a plain-speaking populist who is not afraid to offend.