Donald Trump gestures to his supporters yesterday after stunning the world by defeating Hillary Clinton in the US presidential race. Reuters
Republican Donald Trump stunned the world by defeating heavily favored rival Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s presidential election, ending eight years of Democratic rule and sending the United States on a new, uncertain path.
A wealthy real estate developer and former reality TV host, Mr. Trump rode a wave of anger towards Washington insiders to win the White House race against Ms. Clinton, the Democratic candidate whose gold-plated establishment resume included stints as a first lady, senator and secretary of state.
President Barack Obama, who campaigned hard against Mr. Trump, telephoned the Republican to congratulate him on his victory and invited him to the White House for a meeting today, the White House said. Mr. Obama was due to speak late last night (Cambodia time) about the election.
“Ensuring a smooth transition of power is one of the top priorities the president identified at the beginning of the year and a meeting with the president-elect is the next step,” the White House said.
Worried that a Trump victory could cause economic and global uncertainty, investors were in full flight from risky assets.
The US dollar, Mexican peso and world stocks fell yesterday, but fears of the kind of shock that wiped trillions of dollars off global markets after Britain’s “Brexit” vote in June have failed to materialize so far.
Trailing in public opinion polls for months, Mr. Trump pulled off a major surprise and collected enough of the 270 state-by-state electoral votes needed to win, taking battleground states where presidential elections are traditionally decided, US television networks projected. His four-year term starts on January 20.
Mr. Trump appeared with his family before cheering supporters in a New York hotel ballroom, saying it was time to heal the divisions caused by the campaign and find common ground after a campaign that exposed deep differences among Americans.
“It is time for us to come together as one united people,” Mr. Trump said. “I will be president for all Americans.”
He said he had received a call from Ms. Clinton to congratulate him on the win and praised her for her service and for a hard-fought campaign.
His comments were an abrupt departure from his campaign trail rhetoric in which he repeatedly slammed Ms. Clinton as “crooked” amid supporters’ chants of “lock her up.”
But Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, did not rule out the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Ms. Clinton’s past conduct, a threat Mr. Trump made in an election debate last month.
Republicans also kept control of the Congress. Television networks projected the party would retain majorities in both the 100-seat Senate and the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats were up for grabs.
Despite losing the state-by-state electoral battle that determines the US presidency, Ms. Clinton narrowly led Mr. Trump in the nationwide popular vote, according to US media tallies. It would mark the second time in 16 years that a Democratic candidate lost the presidency despite winning more votes than the victor.
In 2000, Democrat Al Gore had more votes than Republican George W. Bush.
At Ms. Clinton’s election event a mile away from Mr. Trump’s victory party, an electric atmosphere among supporters expecting to see her become America’s first woman president dissipated.
Ms. Clinton did not immediately make a concession speech, instead sending campaign chairman John Podesta out to tell her supporters to go home. “We’re not going to have anything more to say tonight,” he said.
Prevailing in a cliffhanger race that opinion polls had clearly forecast as favoring a Clinton victory, Mr. Trump won avid support among a core base of white non-college educated workers with his promise to be the “greatest jobs president that God ever created.” He did well in “Rust Belt” states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio.
“Such a beautiful and important evening. The forgotten man and woman will never be forgotten again. We will all come together as never before,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter.
In his victory speech, he said he had a great economic plan, would embark on a project to rebuild American infrastructure and would double US economic growth.
Mr. Trump, who at 70 will be the oldest first-term US president, came out on top after a bitter and divisive campaign that focused largely on the character of the candidates and whether they could be trusted in the Oval Office.
Foreign leaders pledged to work with Mr. Trump, but some officials expressed alarm that the vote could mark the end of an era in which Washington promoted democratic values and was seen by its allies as a guarantor of peace.
During the campaign, Mr. Trump expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, questioned central tenets of the NATO military alliance and suggested that Japan and South Korea should develop nuclear weapons to shoulder their own defense burden.
Russia and Mr. Putin appeared to be winners from Mr. Trump’s victory. Defying years of US foreign policy orthodoxy, the Republican has promised much warmer relations with Moscow, despite Russia’s intervention in the Syrian civil war and its seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea region.
Russia’s parliament erupted in applause after a lawmaker announced that Mr. Trump had been elected, and Mr. Putin told foreign ambassadors he was ready to fully restore ties with Washington.
US neighbor Mexico was pitched into deep uncertainty by the victory for Mr. Trump, who has often accused it of stealing US jobs and sending criminals across the border.
Mr. Trump wants to rewrite international trade deals to reduce trade deficits and has taken positions that raise the possibility of damaging relations with America’s most trusted allies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Reuters
STEVE HOLLAND AND JOHN WHITESIDES
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