Donald Trump Elected President Of The United States

Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States over Hillary Clinton on Tuesday.

The president-elect took the stage early Wednesday morning before a raucous crowd of supporters in midtown Manhattan.

“I just received a call from Secretary Clinton,” he said. “She congratulated us on our victory. And I congratulated her on a hard-fought campaign.” 

He praised Clinton for the hard work she’s done for the country, and told the crowd that “we owe her a major debt of gratitude” for her service to our country.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan spoke Wednesday morning to say Trump had pulled off an enormous political feat and earned a mandate with his victory.

Polls going into Election Day had largely shown Clinton ahead by a few points, though the expectation was that the race would be tight. By early Wednesday, Trump had won 289 electoral votes and the popular vote, compared to Clinton’s 218. 

Minnesota, Michigan and New Hampshire had not been counted yet, and Trump lost his home state of New York. 

After a bitterly fought election, Trump delivered a unifying message -- he called on all Republicans and Democrats to “come together as one united people” and he pledged “to every citizen that I will be president for all our citizens.”

It was a remarkably conciliatory speech from a candidate who had employed more fiery rhetoric his campaign and endured few slights silently. “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer,” he promised.

Trump pledged to fix our inner cities, rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, and “finally take care of our great veterans.”   America “will no longer settle for anything less than the best,” he pledged.

The U.S. will double its growth and have the “strongest economy anywhere in the world,” Trump said. And he promised to seek common ground and “not hostility.”

Clinton’s concession call came as a surprise to some of her staffers, who first heard of her call from reporters. Indeed, not long before Trump spoke, the Democratic nominee had dispatched her campaign manager, John Podesta to her election watching party at the Javits Center to send her supporters home and wait for more conclusive results. 

Trump’s victory was a stunning upset -- the political neophyte, who thought little of data gathering, the ground game or TV ads, ended up carrying several key battleground states, including states Democrats had little to no expectation of losing.

The fears of Trump’s down-ballot effect also turned out to be unfounded. The Senate remains in Republican hands, as does the House.