White House
Donald Trump will become the 45th US president after
a stunning victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The Republican nominee's victory came down to a
handful of key swing states, despite months of polling
that favoured Mrs Clinton.
The battlegrounds of Florida, Ohio and North Carolina
cleared the way for his Brexit-style upset.
Global markets plummeted, with the US dollar diving
and gold prices surging.
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Mr Trump's shock victory in Wisconsin put him over
the 270 out of 538 electoral college votes needed to
win the White House, after a gruelling and rancorous
campaign.
The US president-elect took to the stage with his
family at his victory rally in a New York hotel ballroom
and said: "I just received a call from Secretary Clinton.
She congratulated us on our victory.
"Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long
period of time, and we owe her a major debt of
gratitude for her service to our country."
He added: "It is time for us to come together as one
united people."
The real estate tycoon, former reality TV star and
political newcomer, who was universally ridiculed when
he declared his candidacy in June last year, said his
victory had been "tough".
Mr Trump has so far won 28 US states, smashing into
Mrs Clinton's vaunted electoral firewall in Pennsylvania
and Wisconsin, states that have not supported a
Republican presidential candidate since 1988 and 1984
respectively.
He also prevailed in Iowa, which has not elected a
Republican since 2004.
Mr Trump held on to solidly Republican territory,
including in Georgia, Arizona and Utah, where the
Clinton campaign had invested resources in the hope of
flipping the states.
Mr Trump will take office in January with Congress fully
under Republican control as Democrats were unable to
wrest control of the Senate in Tuesday's general
election.
Mrs Clinton, 69, has only notched up victories in 18 US
states and the District of Columbia.
New Hampshire and Michigan - which had also been
expected to fall in the Clinton column - remained too
close to call as of Wednesday morning.
The Democratic candidate, who dreamed of becoming
the first female US president, did not show up for what
was meant to be her victory rally across town in
Manhattan.
The mood was dark at her election night party in the
Javits Center, as supporters wept and left early.
At Trump headquarters earlier, his fans cheered and
chanted about the Democratic nominee: "Lock her up!"
In other developments:
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Mr
Trump, saying he was hopeful of "bringing US-Russia
relations out of their critical condition"
As the result became clear, crowds outside the
White House broke out into spontaneous protests
whileTrump supporters cheered
Massachusetts, Nevada and California voted to
legalise recreational marijuana, which could lead to
the creation of the largest market for marijuana
products in the US
Nationwide exit polls underscored America's stark
divide.
Male voters were much more likely to back Mr Trump,
while women backed Mrs Clinton by a double-digit
margin.
Nearly nine in 10 black voters and two-thirds of Latinos
voted for the Democrat, but more than half of white
voters backed the Republican.
Mr Trump, a populist billionaire, provoked controversy
on the campaign trail for comments about women,
Muslims and a plan to build a wall along the US-
Mexican border.
He fired up white, working-class American voters who
were angry at the Washington establishment and felt
left behind by globalisation.
On the eve of the vote, Mrs Clinton was ahead by four
points in a BBC aggregate of opinion polls, but it was
well within the margin of error.
She saw her campaign dogged by FBI investigations
into whether she abused state secrets by operating a
private email server during her time as US secretary of
state.
Last Sunday, the law enforcement bureau cleared her
once again of any criminality.
Mr Trump and Mrs Clinton were vying to succeed
Democratic President Barack Obama.
After two four-year terms in the White House, he was
barred by the US constitution from running for re-
election.
