With nomination secured, Trump to aim all guns at Hillary Clinton

Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks as (L-R) his daughter Ivanka, his son Eric and Eric's wife Lara Yunaska (R) look on during a campaign victory party after rival candidate Senator Ted Cruz dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination following the results of the Indiana state primary, at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, US, May 3, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - With Donald Trump now being the likely Republican Party (GOP) nominee, he will start to focus his attacks on likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, slinging mud in her direction in what is sure to be a knock-down, drag out fight for the White House.

After Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich dropped out of the race after Trump's big win in Indiana Tuesday, Trump is the last Republican candidate standing in a primary season that started with a dozen candidates.

The New York real estate mogul, who just last summer was dismissed by pundits and political prognosticators as a flash in the pan, has steamrolled through several states and galvanized Republican rank-and-file voters like no other GOP candidate in years.

After virtually securing his nomination, Trump is now ready to focus on a single target -- Hillary Clinton, who is his likely Democratic rival in the November general elections.

"Trump will begin in earnest attacking Hillary Clinton," Brookings Institution's senior fellow Darrell West told Xinhua. "He will call her 'corrupt Hillary' and knit together Benghazi, email server, Whitewater, and her husband's infidelities into a narrative that seeks to make her unacceptable to American voters."

Indeed, Clinton has had her share of scandals over the years. More than two decades ago she was implicated in a failed land deal that became known as the "whitewater scandal."

While in the office of Secretary of State, she was blasted for alleged incompetence -- critics called it negligence -- for not providing better security for the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, resulting in the 2012 terrorist attack that killed four Americans, including US Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Clinton has also taken heat for allegedly using a personal email server while she was secretary of state, instead of a government server. Critics said she could have jeopardized US national security, and a US Justice Department investigation over the issue is ongoing.