7 times we were sure Donald Trump wouldn't get the GOP nomination

WWE Hall of Famer Donald Trump has gained enough delegates to officially clinch the GOP nomination for president.

And what little doubt there remains will be wiped away after California's June 7 primary, which Trump is expected to handily win, as he's the only GOP candidate with an active campaign. (California is a proportional delegate state, anyway, guaranteeing Trump enough delegates.) 

Not that any of this is unexpected. Since Ted Cruz and John Kasich called it quits in early May, Trump has been the presumptive nominee and, despite some ongoing concerns, enough members of the GOP "establishment" are coming around on Trump that there probably won't be much of a fight at the party's convention in Cleveland in July.

Through all the turmoil and debates, there have been plenty of times that the nation probably thought Trump would never get the nomination. So to mark the occasion, let's take a walk down memory lane and revisit some of those moments.

When he called to ban everybody

Trump kicked his campaign off by taking on Mexico, calling for a wall to be built to stem the flow of undocumented immigration and saying those that do make it across are responsible for large amounts of crime. 

While media have largely debunked many of Trump's claims, the chanting of "Build that wall!" continues at Trump rallies.

And, in the wake of the December 2015 San Bernardino attacks, Trump added another group to his "banned" list when he said he would put a halt to all Muslim immigration into the United States.

By mid-May, even as he remained fully dedicated to the wall, he was beginning to walk back the Muslim ban as "just a suggestion."

"Blood coming out of her... wherever..."

In a post-debate phone interview on CNN back in August, Trump implied Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly of being unfairly tough on him, calling him out on sexist comments he had made, because she had PMS, saying, "there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her... wherever..." 

The feud continued for months, even resulting in Trump skipping one Fox News debate because of his tiff with the network. He even took to retweeting supporters who called Kelly a "bimbo."

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The sparring with Kelly got a new look when Trump made unflattering comments on the physical appearance of GOP rival Carly Fiorina. 

But now it seems the feuding is water under the bridge: A few weeks ago, Kelly, who has a book coming out later this year, sat down with Trump for an interview in which the two mostly made nice, including a moment in which Trump (sort of) apologized for the "bimbo" tweet. 

When Trump called Ted Cruz a "pussy"

Presidential politics have been steeped in colorful and questionable language since the beginning of the country. In the 1840s, former president John Quincy Adams was in the midst of his post-White House career in the House of Representatives when the annexation of Texas prompted him to declare the action had made the Constitution into a "menstruous rag."

Yet it was still jarring to hear Trump employ some crude rhetoric that has been absent on the presidential stage. During one rally, Trump, in the midst of criticizing Ted Cruz on his stance on waterboarding in a recent debate, decided to repeat the shouts of a rally-goer who called Ted Cruz a "pussy." 

Trump defended the moment, claiming it was just "fun" and that he was simply repeating the words of another person.

"Schlonged"

In December 2015, after criticizing Hillary Clinton for having the audacity to take a bathroom break during a Democratic debate, Trump then railed on her 2008 primary campaign against President Barack Obama, saying, "she got schlonged." 

Again, Trump went on the defensive, saying that it just meant that she had been beaten badly in her campaign. 

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But Trump's explanation is at odds with the definition of the word provided by the Internet's clearinghouse for slang translations, Urban Dictionary. 

"Something else must be small ... I guarantee you there's no problem"

Take a moment to revisit this legendary moment from the 1988 Vice Presidential debate in which Lloyd Bentsen slammed Dan Quayle.

The entire exchange is ice cold. Bentsen completely dispatches Quayle and his rebuttal in a calm, cool, logical manner and never breaks a sweat or raises his voice.

Now, consider this exchange between Trump and Rubio from a March 2016 GOP debate when, while defending his hand size, Trump insists his penis is big enough for him to be president.

This storyline from the 2016 campaign came full circle on Sunday when Rubio told CNN that he later apologized to Trump for implying he had a small penis. 

"Some form of punishment" for abortion

A few weeks after defending his penis size, Donald Trump told MSNBC's Chris Matthews that women who have abortions should face some sort of punishment. It was an interesting statement for Trump who, in the past, was pro-choice. 

Of course, after his comments raised a firestorm, Trump did his usual walk-back/clarification and said he meant doctors who perform abortions should be punished, not the women. But even his anti-choice opponents in the GOP criticized Trump's comments. 

Taco Gate

The most recent example is a bit of a doozy.

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The photo created a firestorm on social media for many reasons, including Trump's celebration of Mexico's holiday after the many incendiary comments he had said in the past (see above). 

But there were plenty of other issues people had with the photo. Mashable's Brian Koerber even found 19 things wrong with it, including the revelation that Trump appears to be eating the taco bowl on top of a photo of his bikini-clad ex.

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