News Analysis: Trump poised to be competitive presidential candidate after clinching Republican nomination

Brash U.S. billionaire Donald Trump on Thursday hit the number of delegates needed to grab the Republican Party (GOP) nomination, as some experts predict that he will be a competitive candidate in the presidential race.

The development comes on the heels of Trump's recent surge in the polls, as he for the first time is running neck-in-neck with likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. This foreshadows a tight contest in this year's race to the White House.

Just six months ago, most political observers dismissed Trump as a flash in the pan, but he now stands out as the winner in the Republican nomination fight.

And, for the first time, Trump recently inched ahead of Clinton in the Real Clear Politics polling average, although Clinton later moved ahead by a point. But with a margin of error around 2 points, the candidates are essentially tied.

"Trump has gotten a polling bump from nailing down the GOP nomination," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

"Party leaders are endorsing him and he has made tremendous progress in unifying the Republican party. This is helping him greatly in the fall campaign against Hillary Clinton. As of right now, he has a more unified party than she (Clinton) does," he said.

Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua that a lot of the GOP establishment and voters are beginning to unify behind Trump despite concerns about specific policies.

Once it became clear that after former GOP candidates Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich quit the Republican nomination race in early May, many establishment Republicans who had in the past expressed a dislike for Trump began to rally around him.

"Shifts in the poll numbers supporting Trump have demonstrated this. The establishment has begun the process of warming to him and feeling him out on specific policies," Mahaffee said.

With the nomination out of the way, Trump can now focus his attention and strategy on Clinton. The bombastic businessman has begun forming a narrative about his political rival, calling her "crooked Hillary," in an effort to paint her as dishonest and untrustworthy.

"If crooked Hillary Clinton is in charge, things will get much worse," Trump said on Thursday at a rally, saying that Clinton would bury businesses in regulations that would be difficult to navigate.

That would further slow the economy that has still not fully recovered from the 2008 economic nosedive, Trump implied.

Indeed, Clinton is currently embroiled in a scandal over whether she jeopardized U.S. national security by using a private email account and server for official business while she was Secretary of State under President Barack Obama.

A House panel is also investigating Clinton's responsibility for the 2012 terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens were killed, when Clinton was then secretary of state.

After clinching the nomination, Trump is highly likely to go on full attack mode against Clinton and use this and other Clinton scandals as political fodder against the former first lady.

"Being the nominee allows Trump to pivot to the fall campaign and focus all his energy on defeating Hillary Clinton," West said.

This victory frees up resources for Trump and will allow him to moderate some of his policy messages, he said.

Trump "now is in full control of the party platform and the summer convention so he will mold each of those to his own preferences," West added. Enditem