CLEVELAND (AP) - A year ago, few imagined Donald Trump as a headline speaker at the Republican National Convention - let alone as its star.
Back then, maybe the billionaire New Yorker was alone in thinking he would arrive in Cleveland this week as the GOP's presumptive nominee for president. There are still some Republicans trying to stop him, but the party's four-day coronation of its unlikely White House hopeful will complete his rise from real estate mogul to potential leader of the free world.
"It was quite a journey," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said. "Not just what he was able to do in getting more votes than any Republican in the history of our party, but do it with 16 people running. It is a remarkable thing."
Indeed, the man who opened his campaign as a late night TV punchline will face the nation as the Republican Party standard-bearer, delivering what could be the most watched convention speech of all time.
Trump will do so in a time of tumult at home and abroad.
Authorities said three police officers were shot and killed Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where the slaying of a black man by white police officers this month led to protests nationwide and heightened concerns about the state of race relations in America.
Trump quickly blamed a "lack of leadership" for that shooting, taking to his Twitter and Facebook pages to say he was grieving for the offers killed.
"We demand law and order," Trump wrote.
In the days before, Trump's choice of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate was overshadowed by a terror attack in France and attempted coup in Turkey.
Protests are widely expected outside the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, where the city's police chief, Calvin Williams, said Sunday that it seems everyone is coming to town to "exercise their First Amendment rights."
The circumstances only add to the attention placed on Trump and his politically incorrect and unscripted campaign, which has successfully tapped into a wave of populist anger few others saw as the race for president began more than a year ago.
Trump has thrilled supporters with a willingness to hurl insults at Democrats and Republican alike, tearing them down them with pet nicknames: "Little Marco" and "Crooked Hillary" among them. Yet his lack of discipline and disorganized campaign has turned off many Republican leaders. His blunt tone and aggressive approach to immigration and terrorism has done the same with key segments of general election voters: women, blacks and Hispanics, especially.
According to any number of preference polls, Trump heads into the convention as one of the most unpopular major party nominees ever.
All of it makes the convention starting today must-see TV.
"He doesn't have natural filters," New York GOP Chairman Ed Cox said. "Let's see about the acceptance speech. That's probably going to be the most watched acceptance speech ever, because it's going to be dramatic. People don't know exactly what it's going to be."
An estimated 30 million people watched 2012 nominee Mitt Romney address the convention four years ago. After setting ratings records throughout the Republican primary season, Trump could very well shatter that number.
But what those tuning in will see between the chairman's opening gavel Monday afternoon and when roughly 125,000 balloons fall from the rafters at Quicken Loans Arena at the end of Trump's speech Thursday night remains, to a large degree, a mystery.
"We want America to understand who Donald Trump the man is, not just Donald Trump the candidate," Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, said Sunday on the convention floor.
The pre-convention show got off to a rocky start, as the addition of Pence to the ticket dragged out over a few days amid rumblings that Trump was having second thoughts. Trump called the Indiana governor "my first choice" when introducing him Saturday in New York, but spent most of his 28-minute speech talking about anything but his new running mate and spent only a few seconds with him on stage.