Business tycoon Donald Trump on Thursday night accepted the Republican nomination for president of the United States, promising Americans that he will restore "law and order" in the country and if elected to the Oval Office. The 70-year-old billionaire, in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, he said, "The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean soon, come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored," Al Jazeera reported him as saying.

The real estate magnate from New York had harsh words for his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. He said Clinton had a "legacy of death, destruction, terrorism and weakness", and that she had allowed the rise of the Islamic State group during her term as US secretary of state. "The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead," he said. "Nobody knows the system better than me. That is why I alone can fix it."

The controversial candidate, who had called for a ban on Muslims in the US, was officially nominated by the Grand Old Party. Former rival Ted Cruz on Wednesday had refused to endorse Trump's GOP nomination, which earned him the audience's anger at the convention.