Donald Trump elected US president

Friday, November 11, 2016

On Tuesday, Republican Donald Trump won the 2016 United States presidential election. Republicans also kept control of both houses of Congress. Trump is to take the presidential oath in January.

Trump won at least 290 electoral votes, while Clinton won 228, according to the AP (Associated Press) — 270 were required vote to win the election — though Clinton won more national popular votes, 47.7% compared to Trump’s 47.4%. Trump won the crucial electoral votes of Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. The electors of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin had not supported a Republican presidential nominee for more than a quarter century, but in this election between them they provided Trump 30 electoral votes.

According to law, the citizens vote for an elector in the state who promises to vote for a particular candidate. In most states, the candidate who wins most votes in a state wins all electors of the state. Different states have varying numbers of electors, which depend on the state’s population. Since there are 538 electors in the US, one needs to win an absolute majority of the electors, that is, at least 270. Due to the electoral college, a candidate can win the presidential election even if he/she receives lesser national popular vote.

In her concession speech on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton said, “We owe him [Donald Trump] an open mind and a chance to lead.” Clinton also said, “We’ve spent a year and a half, bringing together millions of people from every corner of our country to say with one voice that We believe that the American Dream is big enough for everyone, for people of all races and religions, for men and women, for immigrants, for LGBT people, and people with disabilities; for everyone.”

President Barack Obama had called Trump “uniquely unqualified” during the election campaign, but, after the president-elect victory of Trump, Obama met him in the White House yesterday and said, “My number one priority in the coming two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our president-elect is successful.” After the meeting, Trump tweeted, “A fantastic day in D.C. Met with President Obama for first time. Really good meeting, great chemistry. Melania liked Mrs. O [Michelle Obama] a lot!”

Following the unexpected result of the election, people protested in various US cities, often chanting “Not my president”. On Wednesday, more than 60 people were arrested in New York, and a crowd blocked the entrance of Chicago’s Trump Tower. Lily Morton, a 17-year-old student protester, said yesterday, “This generation deserves better than Donald Trump […] The queer people, colored people, women, girls, everyone that is going to be affected by this, we need to protest to help them. There is still love in this country.”

During the voting, huge traffic on the Canadian immigration website resulted in a site crash, officials said. Justin Trudeau tweeted, “I’ve just spoken with President-elect Trump – and we agreed to meet soon to keep building the Canada-US relationship.” ^{((fr)) French language: Je viens de parler au président élu Trump; nous avons convenu de nous rencontrer bientôt pour continuer à bâtir la relation Canada-É. U.}

Last year, after the Paris attack in November, Trump commented on Muslims saying, “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and a complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.” He also said, “our country can not be the victim of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad.” But after winning the president-elect, the statement on Trump’s website was removed, and it redirected to the donation page.

Trump partisans defended Trump saying those proposed actions were to insure safety rather than targeting any religion. Though the statement disappeared from the web site, various defences of it are still there.

Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto congratulated Donald Trump and tweeted, “I congratulate the US on its electoral process and reiterate to @realDonaldTrump [Donald Trump] our willingness to work together for our bilateral relationship.” ^{((es)) Spanish language: Felicito a EUA por su proceso electoral y le reitero a @realDonaldTrump [Donald Trump] la disposición de trabajar juntos en favor de la relación bilateral.} . Mexican currency, the peso, dropped 13% in value as Trump won. Trump had proposed to abandon the trilateral US–Mexico–Canada NAFTA agreement (North American Free Trade Agreement) and to build a wall at the US–Mexico border. Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu said Mexico would not pay for this wall.

Previously in 2016, Mexico reinforced the peso three times by increasing its benchmark interest rate.

70-year-old Donald Trump will be the oldest US president to first enter the office. No woman has ever been the US president.