BILLINGS: White House hopeful Donald Trump claimed victory Thursday in the Republican nomination race, while shrugging off criticism from the man he aims to replace, President Barack Obama, who blasted the billionaire's ignorance and arrogant attitude.
Trump vaulted past the threshold of 1,237 needed to win the party's primary race when a group of unbound delegates from North Dakota said they would back him.
The accomplishment caps an extraordinary rise by a political neophyte whose campaign was widely derided as a distraction and a publicity stunt last June, when Trump announced his candidacy.
Trump eventually swept 16 Republican rivals aside, and was the last man standing when his remaining two challengers quit the race early this month.
"The folks behind me got us right over the top from North Dakota," Trump told reporters in Bismarck, standing with some 15 unbound delegates from the Midwestern state who committed their support to the real estate tycoon.
"I'm so honored."
Several US media outlets, citing their own analysis of pledged delegates and unbound delegates who announced their commitment to Trump, said earlier Thursday that Trump reached or surpassed the 1,237 mark.
The Republican Party will not make the delegate results official until its national convention in July, when delegates vote for their nominee.
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