He says America will come together as never before.
Billionaire Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump clenched the presidential election victory on Tuesday and will become the 45th president of the United States of America, stunning critics and data analysts alike after campaign-end polls predicted that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would narrowly win the contest.
“Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division; we have to get together,” thundered Mr. Trump to a cheering crowd in New York City early Wednesday morning. “To all Republicans and Democrats and Independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”
The Republican candidate sealed the election with victories in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Michigan—none of which were expected to be swing states—in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Secretary Clinton reportedly called Mr. Trump to concede around 2:30 am, after many news organizations projected that he would win more than 270 electoral votes. He took the stage at a convention center in New York City to claim the presidency and thank his supporters.
The president-elect’s victory is a shocking culmination to a brutal campaign that pundits have called one of the most polarizing in history. There was a wide range of outcomes to the election, but a majority of data analysts and pollsters predicted that Secretary Clinton would triumph. Data analysis blog FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver even used one prediction model on Tuesday morning to conclude that Secretary Clinton was a 72% favorite.
Citizens across the nation, reeling from the shocking news, protested Mr. Trump’s win. Students took to the streets as early as Tuesday evening to protest what they saw as a win for an anti-Muslim, anti-minority candidate. For many college students, this was their first presidential election. Some Covenant students voiced delight at the outcome of the election.
“I’ve never been prouder of our country,” said junior Annie Deluca. “I feel very patriotic right now.”
Other students felt differently.
“I reject the idea that we have allowed some of the ideas of the Trump campaign into the White House,” said sophomore Anna Katherine Clarke. “But this is not a defeat. For the first time, a woman has won the popular vote in our nation. Our first Latina senator has been elected, the first LGBTQ governor has won, and there are many other success stories.”
Many of Mr. Trump’s detractors have repudiated him for the hateful rhetoric that helped him win.
“Donald Trump tapped into the anger of a declining middle class that is sick and tired of establishment economics, establishment politics and the establishment media,” said Bernie Sanders in a statement issued Wednesday.
But the president-elect, who once boasted that he could shoot someone in the middle of a crowded street and not lose a follower, proved to be a uniting force for the Republican party, which maintained control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives in the elections.
Such a sweeping victory sets up the Republican party to reshape Washington and charges Mr. Trump with a colossal mandate when he takes office on January 20. He has vowed to repeal Obamacare, build a wall along America’s southern border, repair the nation’s deteriorating infrastructure, and prosecute Secretary Clinton for potentially mishandling classified information while serving as Secretary of State.
But there was no talk of such matters when Mr. Trump delivered his victory speech, which focused on uniting the nation and thanking those who had played roles in his campaign. In fact, in an interview with Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough Wednesday morning on MSNBC, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said that she and Donald Trump had not even discussed his plan to appoint a special prosecutor to prosecute Secretary Clinton.
President Barack Obama met with Mr. Trump at the White House on Thursday to welcome him and begin a smooth transition process. The gesture was seen as an olive branch from a President who repeatedly denounced Mr. Trump’s candidacy and criticized his hateful rhetoric.