Ahead of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, RTÉ's Washington Correspondent Caitríona Perry explains how it all works.
What will happen this week and what can we expect from Trump?
Donald Trump will be crowned Republican Presidential Nominee.
He has the numbers, there were rumours of a sort of coup from the floor, but that is not expected to go anywhere.
But the real test this week for Mr Trump is not of those in front of him, but it’s those sitting at home watching on TV… huge TV event and for many Americans it’s the first time they will actually tune into what is happening with the presidential election … campaigns have been running for over a year now, but for many people that is just too long and now is the time to inform themselves.
Matt Schlapp, the Chairman of the American Conservative Union - one of the oldest conservative lobbying organisations in the US and Political Director to President George W Bush - explains that he believes Donald Trump must outline to the American people this week that he has what it takes to become president.
But mostly there’ll be four days of speakers addressing a certain theme each day and then as the last speaker on Thursday night Donald J Trump himself will officially accept the party’s nomination.
So what are the themes?
Well of course the overarching theme is 'Make America Great Again'. That will be broken down into four separate strands: Make America Safe Again (all about national security); make America Work Again (all about jobs and the economy), Make America First Again (improved government); Make America One again (a focus on unity and leadership).
And who are the speakers?
The partial list of speakers released by the Republican National Committee a few days ago reads more like the invite list to some Washington DC holiday party than it does a Republican think-in.
Missing are the party’s two most recent presidents - George H Bush and George W Bush.
Missing too are the party’s two most recent presidential candidates Mitt Romney and John McCain
The most recent vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is there, one suspects only because he is now the Speaker of the House of Representatives and as the party’s most senior elected official he sort of has to be.
Although his endorsement of Donald Trump coming late has been lukewarm at best to date.
So who will be there to extol Donald Trump’s virtues? Well his four children will speak, as will his wife Melania. Although the speculation is that his daughter Ivanka will actually be the one to introduce him on stage on Thursday night.
There’s also the tech billionaire Peter Thiel, the President of the UFC Dana White, one of the world’s richest men Phil Ruffin, former Calvin Klein underwear model Antonio Sabato Junior, democratic black police sheriff David Clarke, who has described Black Lives Matter as a hate group, Kimberlin Brown, an actress from the daytime soap The Young and The Restless, and Kerry Woolard, General Manager of the Trump Winery in Virginia.
There are some of the failed presidential candidates too, such as Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, but not all - missing are John Kasich and Marco Rubio.
First up among the keynote speakers are Donald Trump’s wife Melania and former New York Mayor Rudy Giulliani.
He also has star of the Duck Dynasty TV show Willie Robertson, as well as the parents of three children who say they were killed by illegal immigrants.
Does he have a hope of unifying a fractured Republican party, especially with so many high-flying Republicans absent from the schedule?
He can try. The groundwork for a fractious existence was there before Trump rose to the fore. The lessons the Republicans were told they needed after the 2008 and 2012 elections, in particular about reaching out to non-white voters, seem to have been ignored.
However, the selection of Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate will help to appease conservatives.
Mike Pence describes himself as a Christian, a Conservative and a Republican in that order. He had previously endorsed Ted Cruz and is loved by evangelical conservatives. He even got a seal of approval from the Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan who was effectively endorsing him before he’d even publicly declared - the opposite of the treatment Mr Ryan saved for Mr Trump’s status as presumptive nominee.
How will they actually nominate him?
There’ll be a roll call of states and each set of delegates will get to cast their vote.
And what about the Democrats?
It’s pretty much all the same thing, the same circus will roll into Philadelphia from 25 to 28 July.
By Washington Correspondent Caitríona Perry
