Donald Trump, defying the pundits and polls to the end, defeated Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s presidential election and claimed an establishment-stunning victory that exposes the depth of voter dissatisfaction – and signals immense changes ahead for American policy at home and abroad.
Seventeen months after the billionaire tycoon’s Trump Tower entrance into the race, the first-time candidate once dismissed by the political elite will become the 45th president, Fox News projects.
Speaking to cheering supporters early Wednesday morning at his victory party in New York City, the Republican candidate and now president-elect said Clinton called to congratulate him, and Fox News confirms she has conceded. Despite their hard-fought campaign, Trump praised Clinton for her service and said “it is time for us to come together as one united people.”
“I will be president for all Americans,” Trump vowed, after a brief introduction by running mate Mike Pence.
TRUMP’S AGENDA: WHAT HIS ELECTION MEANS FOR AMERICA
Sounding a call to “reclaim our country’s destiny,” Trump declared: “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. … America will no longer settle for anything less than the best.”
Trump will be the oldest president in U.S. history, entering the Oval Office at age 70. With her defeat, Clinton falls short in her second bid to become the first female president of the United States.
Though Clinton called Trump, her campaign initially did not concede defeat. Earlier, her campaign chairman John Podesta addressed supporters nearby in New York and said several states were “too close to call.”
Clinton herself did not appear at the rally. Podesta had urged supporters to “head home” and said they would not have “anything more to say tonight.”
Amid Trump’s victory, Republicans also were projected to hold onto their majority in the House and Senate, improving Trump’s chances of advancing his agenda in office.
A surge of support in key battlegrounds – and especially surprise victories in states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – helped propel Trump to victory. The GOP nominee built a commanding lead early on with wins in heavily contested North Carolina, Florida, Ohio and Iowa.
Clinton won her share of battlegrounds, including Virginia and Nevada and Colorado, but could not make up for Trump’s strong performance in other states thought to favor the Democrat.
The billionaire businessman’s victory marked a remarkable upset and turnaround, after he had been complaining amid a rough patch just weeks ago the vote could be “rigged” against him.
Clinton was still thought to have the clear advantage in the electoral map going into Tuesday’s vote, yet the polls had been tightening in the race’s closing days.
His victory could demonstrate just how much the dynamics were shifting in his favor – and perhaps how his true support was elusive all along to pollsters and others gauging the race.
Without question, his bid was helped over the last two weeks by a burst of setbacks for his opponent.
Eleven days before the election, FBI Director James Comey announced the bureau was revisiting the investigation into Clinton’s personal email server use while secretary of state, after discovering new messages on the laptop of disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of a top Clinton aide. He closed the case again on Sunday, but the political damage may have been done. And the WikiLeaks release of emails hacked from Podesta’s account became a constant distraction for the campaign, as the messages revealed infighting, internal concerns about the Clinton family’s foundation and even evidence that the now-head of the Democratic National Committee leaked town hall questions to Clinton during the primaries.
This at times overshadowed the numerous allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Trump that came out in October (which he denies), following leaked footage from over a decade ago showing Trump making crude comments about women.
Trump’s victory marks the second time Clinton was thwarted in her bid to become the first female U.S. president, having been defeated by President Obama in their 2008 primary race.
But Trump has been able to defy expectations from the start. He defeated a deep field of 16 competitors during the Republican primaries – stitching together a motivated coalition of voters invigorated by his outsider, populist message; throwing his rivals off their talking points during a raucous marathon of debates; and commanding media attention throughout with his unpredictable, learn-as-he-goes campaign style.
He also defied party orthodoxy, railing against free-trade deals like NAFTA and the Trans Pacific Partnership and staking out a sometimes-confusing set of positions on foreign policy that may yet evolve. Democrats have criticized him heavily for statements expressing admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin and a desire to rebuild ties with Moscow.
Trump was aided by the infrastructure of the GOP, but his campaign never came close to the juggernaut operation mounted by Clinton. While she entered the final stretch of the race with an army of high-powered surrogates, Trump’s campaign was driven mainly by him, an inner circle of family members and a rotating set of top campaign advisers. Surrogates like retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani advocated aggressively for the Republican nominee, but he remained at odds with many influential elected Republicans who in some cases – as with House Speaker Paul Ryan – endorsed him, but only reluctantly. His stances on trade as well as his hardline immigration proposals – including variations on a plan to suspend Muslim immigration from certain countries – also made party brass uncomfortable.
The late emergence of a 2005 tape showing him making crude comments about women led some congressional Republicans to abandon him entirely. But even the biggest controversies seemed only to ding Trump, whose resilience in the polls could be credited to a movement of grassroots supporters who seemed to have little interest in the nominee’s tensions with the GOP establishment and saw him as the true change-maker in the election.
yeah…. wake me up when they start building the wall.
Now we’ll have all the brainless Trump supporters to thank for the Nazi-style police state he’ll erect to “protect” us. If you think the cops are out of control now, have another look in six months.
But I don’t think it would be any different under Hillary…. maybe worse. The script was written long before the actors were chosen.
“We owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.” Trump from his speech.
I liken this to “salute a soldier, thank a soldier for their service to our country.
Trumps off to a great start as next liar in chief as he expects us to believe that we OWE her a MAJOR debt of gratitude for her service. Absolutely pathetic. Typical POLITICAL rhetoric.
A different Elitist faction won in place of the usual Elitist faction.
I now feel freer.!!!!! (In my butt I feel freer).
If Trump cancels the fed charter and prints debt free money then I might raise an eyebrow….till then ‘jews’ retain control.
I did find this perspective interesting
What Hath Trump Wrought?
http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=1163
-flek
to all the people , celebrities, and politicians that said they would leave this country if Trump got in
dont let the door hit yas where the good lord split ya
Bryan Cranston
Samuel Jackson
Lena Dunham
Neve Campbell
Nataasha Lyonne
Cher
Miley Cyrus
Barbara Streisand
Amy Schumer
Chelsea Handler
John Stewart
Whoopi Goldberg
Keegan Michael Key
George Lopez
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Al Sharpton
Rosi O’Donnald
if i spelled any names wrong please excuse , im going off the top of my head , im sure there were more people too
and they need to be called on it .. especially Amy Schumer..GTFO of here you vile whore
If that’s the case you have my sympathy, Canada! And you can Sarah “I hate Jesus Christ” Silverman as well!
January 20 is a ways away and the PTB always have the control.
I remember another man that came upon us and promised so much, hope and change and do not forget “yes I can”. Such joy was felt and the people rallied around him. Those of his color jumped up and down thinking he was going to pay their mortgages and one screamed “Obama give me phone”. Ah that wonderful day such joy.
I remember that day so well.
Looks like they are going for a soft kill for the next four years; guess they were not prepared for an all out war or overstepped themselves with Sotero then Hillary.
What I keep in mind is that he did not win with over whelming support which keeps all out uprising very much in the forefront of those of us that do NOT support anything the international corporate insurgency offers us.
I believe MOST eyes are watching this zio puppet, just waiting for his big promises rhetoric to fail, and then he’ll be one of the prime figures among many to be THE example on the PUBLIC SQUARE.
he really did if you take into account the vote rigging and the lack of supporters at her rallies. He won probably more votes than anyone in History. Even Obma’s run didn’t see this turn out even with the voting fraud perpetrated for that election. I am willing to say that if not for the vote fraud she would have received the smallest number of votes in history.
I did not vote and most likely never will. I do not play, know too much. Evil is as evil does. LOL
DONALD J. TRUMP WINS AND SO DOES THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
You come back here within the year, after he actually goes into the white house and what he has promised you is diminished to minimal or absolutely nothing, then you beg for our forgiveness for supporting, by voting, this crushing foreign criminal cabal!
Love your police state, and don’t bitch about it, because YOU voted for it.
Remember, YOU can’t complain because you supported this crud!
The united snakes of amerika is what won. My America has a Bill of Rights and chump only promised to trample it some more and you’re gonna get just what you begged for.
“united snakes of amerika”- copyright and sell this, you’ll be rich overnight.
I love it!
Right. Instead of utter destruction in a matter of weeks with a Hilary win, We the People get the slow burn–again.
Like Katie said–you come back here in a year and let us know if you have any freedom left. Like I always say to those who claim “If you don’t vote you can’t complain”–the time for complaining is OVER!