Donald Trump stunned America and the world Wednesday, riding a wave of
populist resentment to defeat Hillary Clinton in the race to become the
45th president of the United States.
The Republican mogul defeated his Democratic rival, plunging global
markets into turmoil and casting the long-standing global political order,
which hinges on Washington’s leadership, into doubt.
The victory by the political novice against the experienced stateswoman,
who has spent decades in public service, stunned observers and ran
contrary to late polling, which showed Clinton with a slight lead going
into Election Day.
Clinton, who fought a bruising battle with Trump for months and hoped to
be the first female president, called him to concede early Wednesday
morning.
“I’ve just received a call from Secretary Clinton. She congratulated us —
it’s about us — on our victory, and I congratulated her and her family on
a very, very hard-fought campaign,” Trump said in his victory speech.
Gone was Trump’s refrain, which he repeated at just about every juncture,
about “crooked Hillary” and what he called her unprecedented corruption.
And apparently gone was his oft-repeated rhetoric about the election’s
being “rigged.” “Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long
period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude,” he said.
His support ran not only through the expected battleground states — such
as Florida, North Carolina, Iowa and Ohio — but also through traditionally
blue states as well, like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And his victory came
as the GOP was projected to retaine control of the House and Senate.
What appeared to be a narrow path for Trump to win the Electoral College,
assuming Democratic strongholds held, grew wider as Trump took state after
state. And his lead in the popular vote, 48 to 47 percent, with 89 percent
of the expected vote reporting, never waned.
With 89 percent of the expected vote in, more than 120 million ballots had
been cast. Trump led the popular vote by more than 1 million votes and led
the electoral vote 278 to 218.
The Clinton campaign initially said the race was too close to call, with
campaign chairman John Podesta telling supporters at the Javits Center who
had gathered for a victory party to go home, saying that every vote should
be counted.
But Clinton later called Trump to concede, Trump said.
Exit polls provided a number of insights into the hard-fought and historic
contest and exposed the deep divisions in the country. The candidates, who
were widely viewed as unpopular, exposed these divisions in their
candidacies.