MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

It's President Donald Trump, after all

Donald Trump wins presidential election

Following the Republican candidate's win in Pennsylvania there was virutally no chance the Democrat nominnee Hillary Clinton could reverse the situation and her campain manager John Podesta sent everybody at her camp home to sleep, saying she would not be making any comments during the evening.

 Against all odds and projections, billionaire Donald Trump is set to become the 45th president of the United States. Trump was expected to deliver a victory speech in the early hours of Wednesday, but it was yet to be determined if it would be the proper thing to do in the absence of recognition from the losing party. The joyful victors celebrated however on the social media that the former First Lady was “#TooDrunkToConcede,” raising doubts as to the honourability of the defeated candidate.

Later in the night, Trump revealked he had received a telehone call from Clinton congratulating him on his victory. “I congratulated her on a hardfought campaign,” the president-elect said. He also pointed out that he would be “reaching out” to people who didn't support him for insight on how to work together and unify the country. “I pledge I will be president for all Americans and this is so important to me,” he added.

Trump, who ran an improbable and ugly campaign against the establishment, held on to small but significant leads in a series of key battleground states on Tuesday night, upending months of polling that had given the advantage to Hillary Clinton and raising Republican hopes of seizing back the White House.

But when Trump was declared the victor in Florida, earning him the state痴 29 electoral votes, his chances of victory increased significantly. And when he added Pennsylvania to his column for a total 264 of the 270 electors needed the unthinkable became the inevitable.

Reaction to the prospect of a Trump presidency rippled across the globe, with financial markets abroad falling as American television networks raised the prospect that Mrs. Clinton might lose. Asian markets were trading sharply lower, down around two percentage points, and in the United States, Dow Jones futures were down as much as 800 points in after-hours trading.

Several hours after polls closed, the vote margins separating Trump and Clinton remained razor thin in states that would determine the outcome of the presidential contest, with voters clearly demonstrating the polarized nature of the American electorate.

Trump's strength seems to have derived from white, working-class and rural voters across the country. He also won North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, while Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a onetime Republican presidential hopeful, won re-election in a hard-fought contest that could help thwart Democratic hopes to take over the Upper House.

Campaign advisers watched with increasing alarm on Tuesday night as Democrat leads that had been predicted in polling for much of the past several months appeared to evaporate as votes were tallied.

A race that was dominated by ugly, personal attacks appeared to have taken a toll on voters, and the country痴 mood appeared darker and more pessimistic than it was four years ago, with about 60 percent of voters saying the country was seriously on the wrong track. Voters said they were eager for change in Washington, though they expressed dismay that issues had been overlooked in the brutal, long and nasty campaign.

There were some minor incidents nationwide. For instance, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to have votes in Nevada impounded on the grounds that poll workers illegally extended early-voting hours to accommodate people who were waiting in long lines. Thousands of Hispanic voters lined up outside polling places to vote on Friday in Clark County, which is home to Las Vegas and has the state痴 largest Hispanic population. Record turnout has raised fears among Republicans that they could lose the battleground state, and Trump campaign officials have been complaining that the extension of hours in some locations is evidence that the election is rigged.

The lawsuit alleges that the people were allowed to vote illegally because they cast ballots after the published closing times at polling places. The campaign also sent a letter to Nevada痴 secretary of state asking for an investigation into the allegations of 兎gregious violations.”

Hillary Clinton voted for herself in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Tuesday morning. 的t痴 a humbling feeling,・ she said, while Trump appeared to be in good spirits when he arrived at a Manhattan polling place just before 11 a.m. with his wife, Melania, to cast his vote. He was met with a mix of cheers and boos as he left his motorcade and waved to pedestrians. Inside Public School 59, Mr. Trump shook hands with other voters and offered high-fives to some children who came along with their parents. The vice-presidential candidates also voted in the morning.

Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, did not vote for Trump, a Bush spokesman said, making official their rejection of the Republican presidential nominee. Bush, his father and his younger brother, Jeb, all indicated after the primary contest that they would not support Trump. George W. Bush, the 43rd president, has avoided commenting publicly on the campaign ever since, even as he obliquely criticized Trump痴 brand of populism at a series of fund-raisers for Republican Senate candidates.

Bob Dole is the only former Republican nominee who supported Mr. Trump痴 candidacy.
Tump came out ahead in Iowa, Utah, Georgia, North Carolina, Idaho, Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Montana, Louisiana, Arkansas, West Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Alaska to secure a winning lead of 276 electoral votes, while Clinton won the states of Nevada, Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, Colorado, Virginia, New Mexico, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Illinois, Washington DC, Rhode Island, Maine and Hawaii.
The Republican candidate was also leading the elections in Alaska, Arizona and Michigan while the Democrat was poised to win in New Hampshire in what cannot reverse the overall results.