The Republican standing in her way is the brash billionaire and political neophyte who rewrote the campaign playbook as he vanquished his many rivals for the nomination with a mudslinging unparalleled in modern American politics. The ferocity of the primaries - few people around the world have seen a modern US presidential race characterised by such insulting and denigrating attacks - promises to be just a preview of what is in store for the general election.
Clinton, the former secretary of state, euphorically seized the Democratic Party mantle Tuesday, seizing the nomination in dramatic fashion with primary wins in four of six states including the grand prize, California. On perhaps the biggest night of her political career, as she declared a historic milestone for women, she assailed Trump for his divisiveness and his trademark slogan, "Make America Great Again."
"That's code for let's take America backward," she said, "back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all." "Don't let anyone tell you that great things can't happen in America," she said. Trump laid into Clinton in his own victory speech after more primary wins, accusing her and her husband, former president Bill, of enriching themselves by "selling access, selling favours, selling government contracts."
And he signalled there would be no honeymoon, announcing a "major speech" for early next week in which he will address "all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons." The trajectory of the race is unlikely to soar into loftier issues. Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, fears the race will be less a battle over substance like the economy or foreign policy than a clash of two outsized personalities.
"Clinton has deep knowledge and detailed platforms, but because Trump doesn't have any, nobody focuses on the differences," Ornstein told AFP in an interview. "And because we have two candidates who are more distrusted than trusted, more disliked than liked, this becomes a race to the bottom." Clinton will be looking to exploit the various controversies ensnaring Trump - most recently his criticism of a Mexican-American federal judge, which sparked uproar within his own party - as a way to enhance her own resume. "Getting down in a mud-wrestling fight with him is going to be a loser," said Tim Miller, a former communications adviser to Republican Jeb Bush, one of the many candidates defeated by Trump in the primaries.