Donald Trump has become the 45th president of the US
Donald Trump has vowed to be ‘president for all Americans’ after pulling off an astonishing victory in the race for the White House.
He told jubilant supporters it was ‘now time for America to bind the wounds of division and come together’.
And he pledged to keep his promise to ‘make America great again’ after beating Hillary Clinton in a battle which went down to the wire.
At the end of one of the most divisive elections in modern US history, the Republican candidate sealed victory when he took key battleground states Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The Clinton camp initially refused to throw in the towel.
But Mr Trump told supporters shortly before 8am UK time: ‘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.’
Mike Pence, the new Vice President, said: ‘This is a historic night. The American people have spoken and people have elected their new champion.’
It appears as thought people bought into the ‘make America great again’ mantra and his pledge to reduce taxes ‘across the board’.
Mr Trump went out of his way to show magnanimity towards a campaign rival he had labelled ‘crooked Hillary’.
And there was none of his trademark confrontational rhetoric as he made his victory speech.
But international markets were panicked by the Trump victory, with London’s FTSE 100 Index dropping as much as 2% on opening.
Shares also tumbled in Asia and the dollar and Mexican peso fell.
Mrs Clinton, a fixture in American politics for decades, was hoping to become the first woman to serve as commander in chief.
Her race against Mr Trump, a celebrity businessman with no political experience, was among the nastiest in recent memory, exposing and deepening the nation’s economic and racial divides.
The Republicans have also clinched continued House control for the new Congress. They will probably lose seats from their current historic high, but they won enough to extend their six-year streak of commanding the chamber.
With voting results still being counted early on Wednesday, Republicans have won at least 218 House seats. That exceeds the number needed to control the chamber.
Democrats started the year hoping Mr Trump’s divisive presidential candidacy would cost Republicans large numbers of House seats.
Republicans now control 247 seats in the House. With a smaller majority, dissident hard-right conservatives could have added leverage to press House Speaker Paul Ryan and other party leaders on the budget and other issues.
The Republican Party’s tortured relationship with its nominee was evident right up to the end.
Former President George W Bush and his wife Laura declined to back Mr Trump, instead selecting ‘none of the above’ when they voted for president, according to spokesman Freddy Ford.
But Mr Trump, the New York real estate developer who lives in a gold-plated Manhattan penthouse, forged a striking connection with white, working-class Americans who feel left behind in the changing economy and diversifying country.
He cast immigration, both from Latin America and the Middle East, as the root of many problems plaguing the nation and called for building a wall along the US-Mexico border.
‘I see so many hopes and so many dreams out there that didn’t happen, that could have happened, with leadership, with proper leadership,’ he said by telephone on Fox News before casting his own ballot in Manhattan.
‘And people are hurt so badly.’
